Learning from the Past, Looking into the Future: Realism in Philippine Foreign Policy

This book tries to highlight what appears to the author to be some of the shortcomings of the foreign policy approach of the Philippines. The author is of the view that two considerations in decision-making are deficient: national interest and state power. Through this work, the author makes suggestions, based on his background and experience in government.

On the national interest, the country started out with a huge swathe of territory bequeathed by the Treaty of Paris between the United States and Spain in 1898. The country’s leaders did not cement ownership of that wide expanse of water. On state power, the Philippines did not prepare itself so that it could secure its territory after independence in 1946. While it is true that it was beset with internal dissidence, the external defense mission was way short of fulfilment under the mandatory portfolio of nationhood. For this neglect, the Philippines paid the price in that it lost territory, including access to resources on and beneath water, that it was entitled to under international law.

Given the above-mentioned historical background, the author suggests that Philippine leaders, diplomats and shapers of public opinion need to shift their focus of analysis from the current naive approach of legalism to realism. Realism is at the base of international political analysis in the sense that its approach precisely takes care of what the Philippines needs as a theoretical framework. It was codified by Morgenthau, systematized by Waltz, and applied by practitioners like Kennan and Kissinger.

The loss of territory and territorial rights is one of the most devastating blows that a nation can suffer. Never again should the Philippines bear such a catastrophe. It is time to mature as a nation.

Leadership is key to the renaissance of the Philippine psyche. The future generations of Filipinos will depend on two vital elements that their leaders should concentrate on: the appropriate foreign and defense policies consistent with the national interest and the required state power. These elements have to be underpinned by a robust economy to support expenditures and investments in them.

The Philippines has to be equal to the task if it seeks to deserve to be a respectable state in the community of nations.