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The Pacific Islands' Billion-Dollar Gamble
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14728 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1988 |
3,314 Words |
| Author
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Michael Eastly
Michael Eastly presently works for the federal government in
the Office of Territorial Affairs. |
When bad news from the Philippines ripples across the western Pacific, waves of expectation wash ashore in Micronesia. Every headline pertaining to the U.S.-Philippine multimillion-dollar base renegotiations and every story of political instability threatening the Aquino government raise the level of interest, concern, and financial speculation in Guam, the Northern Marianas, and Palau.
These U.S.-affiliated islands, arcing 1,200 miles along the western reaches of the Philippine Sea, share a common strategic as well as geographic bond: They are the primary candidates for a possible relocation of U.S. military forces from America's troubled Philippine bases.
In the minds of island leaders, the market value of their airfields, ports, landing beaches, and jungled interiors has steadily escalated over the past two decades as the implications of the Nixon Doctrine became clear, the Philippine situation deteriorated, and U.S. defense planners sought contingency base rights in Micronesia in case a rollback of U.S. forces from the Asian rim became necessary.
Undulating in response to the waves of anticipation, the islanders' efforts to upgrade their relationship with the United States have varied in tempo, intensity, and tactics as each group sought to maximize its negotiating leverage.
Guam and the Northern Marianas, the most strategically important islands because they are only 1,500 miles from Japan and the Philippines, have chosen U.S. commonwealth status. But both also seek unprecedented amounts of local autonomy and financial assistance. Sovereignty,
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