{"id":12211,"date":"2024-01-04T21:50:45","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T02:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=12211"},"modified":"2024-01-08T23:05:24","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T04:05:24","slug":"priming-the-philippines-for-a-globalized-nato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2024\/01\/priming-the-philippines-for-a-globalized-nato\/","title":{"rendered":"Priming the Philippines for a \u201cglobalized NATO\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

G<\/span>lobal dynamics are powerfully impacting the foreign policy of the Philippines and driving it in a dangerous direction. In his second State of the Nation Address, on July 24, 2023, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.\u2019s speech<\/a> declared: \u201cWe have formed strategic alliances with our traditional and newfound partners in the international community.\u201d In the context of the Philippine state\u2019s diplomatic language, \u201cstrategic alliances\u201d chiefly refers to its major North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-linked \u201cpartners\u201d\u2014the United States, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom. In fact, the Marcos Jr. regime is gearing up to join NATO\u2019s creeping project to envelop and control the vast Eurasia-Indo-Pacific area.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the top echelon of the Philippines\u2019 foreign policy apparatus is steering the country along a militarist course. This dangerous policy is Manila\u2019s deliberate answer to the acute global shifts threatening southeast Asia\u2019s general stability. And as it aligns its interests with the core strategic aims of the U.S., the Philippine government blatantly bolsters U.S. war-mongering against the People\u2019s Republic of China.<\/p>\n

\"Ferdinand
Ferdinand Marcos Jr, President of the Philippines at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting January 2023 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. Photo<\/a> by World Economic Forum\/ Greg Beadle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Global dynamics<\/h4>\n

More than three decades since the Cold War ended, the imperialist world system has now entered a new phase in its history. Over the past year alone, the capitalist global order\u2019s innate contradictions generated systemic and complex crises. All of these predicaments\u2014economic, social, political, ecological\u2014severely combined to exacerbate an already volatile world environment. Accordingly, this shifting international milieu categorically shapes Manila\u2019s global outlook and frames its external policy logic.<\/p>\n

Certainly, the current list of worldwide crises conditions includes the following: a) a continuing downturn in the international economy due to persistent global inflationary pressures<\/a>, with a projected slower global growth rate of less than 3 percent by 2024; b) sharpening class struggles<\/a> worldwide amid combined oppressive economic policies and repressive government measures; c) an escalation of open diplomatic clashes<\/a> between the rival blocs of the imperialist great powers within major international forums, especially in the United Nations Security Council; d) a worsening of the global climate change emergency<\/a>, with October 2023 being the hottest October on record; e) an acknowledgement<\/a> by the World Health Organization concerning \u201cremaining uncertainties posted by potential evolution of SARS-CoV-2\u201d; and f) lasting fallouts<\/a> resulting from the current wars inside Ukraine (between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO) and in Zionist-occupied Palestine (between Israel and the oppressed Palestinian nation).<\/p>\n

In this context, the U.S. and China remain locked in a fierce contest for global hegemony despite the U.S. being the top superpower with significant military superiority.<\/p>\n

And in actively pursuing their national interests abroad, Washington and Beijing are guided by their respective foreign policy frameworks.<\/p>\n

The U.S.-led alliances<\/h4>\n

The U.S. seeks to effectively degrade China\u2019s \u201ccomprehensive national power.\u201d As such, Washington\u2019s integrated foreign policy\/national security parameters\u2014expressed in its 2022 National Security Strategy<\/a> (NSS)\u2014commits the U.S. to counteract China as the \u201cpacing challenge,\u201d i.e., its top priority.\u00a0 As the U.S.\u2019s up-to-date strategic guidance doctrine, the 2022 NSS openly describes how, \u201cto outmaneuver our geopolitical competitors,\u201d so as, \u201cto win the competition for the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n

To concentrate its preeminent might upon China, the U.S. constantly fortifies its security alliances\u2014from Western Europe to East Asia, and around central Eurasia (covering Russia).<\/p>\n