American Influence in Asia: Implication to Southeast Asian Economies

The election of a new American president is an event of great importance not only to the
United States, but to the entire world.

The world has seen a democratic process where neither wealth nor pedigree — race nor
gender — are obstacles to securing America’s highest office.

As the world’s preeminent power, the U.S.’s influence is felt throughout the globe. Asia is no
exception. From Japan to Afghanistan, the United States plays a crucial role in the security, political,
and economic affairs of the region. The United States is either the first or second largest trading
partner of almost every Asian nation in all three sub-regions. Although U.S. trade with Asia is
expanding — as a percentage of market share, it is declining. Intra-Asian trade now constitutes 55
percent of the region’s trade with the world. In this decade, China has replaced the United States as
the number one trading partner of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and a number of Southeast Asian
countries. Trends indicate that China will be South Asia’s largest trading partner in the near future.
But Asians remain concerned that the anti-free trade rhetoric espoused during the American
presidential primaries will impede any possibility of successfully completing multilateral trade
negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) in the World Trade Organization
(WTO).

Although the United States has been “the” regional power in Asia since the end of World
War II, there is now some uncertainty about the relevance of U.S. power given current regional
dynamics. The United States may still hold the balance of power in Asia, but does this mean that the
U.S. necessarily holds the most influence? Gradually emerging is a multilateral Asian architecture
based on a series of increasingly shared norms around interstate relations and security. In recent
years, Asians have been discussing the idea of “East Asian community building.” Although the
growth of such multilateralism had a late start compared with Europe, the past two decades have
seen progress with the establishment of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, the
ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), ASEAN Plus Three (China, Japan, and South Korea) — and now,
the East Asia Summit (EAS). The United States is a member of the first two groupings, but not the
latter two. Creating an East Asian Community is a long-term endeavor. A community including
China, Japan, India, and Australia — along with the nations of ASEAN, South Korea, and New
Zealand — is so vast and heterogeneous that its movement is bound to be slow and incremental.
There are two legs to an East Asian Community economic and political. The economic leg is
becoming increasingly stronger with significant trade and investment flows between and among the
Asian nations. In contrast, however, the political leg is relatively underdeveloped. The remarkable
differences among Asian countries in history, culture, religious traditions, and levels of economic
development contribute to American skepticism that creating an East Asian Community is not
possible. But the U.S. needs to understand that the growth of an East Asian Community stems from
a natural desire in the region to forge ties and create acoherent regional identity. There is a growing
sense of Asian regionalism. If the U.S. continues to take a narrow perspective on this issue, it stands
to lose influence in the region. Even if the United States was firmly committed to an East Asian
Community and wanted full membership, Asian countries may or may not welcome U.S.
participation. Many Asians have been surprised by the U.S.’s passive attitude toward the East Asia
Summit (EAS), and suspect it is due to American preoccupation with the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan and other problems in the Middle East. Nonetheless, even if the United States never
joins the EAS, Asian nations must still engage with the U.S. as a dialogue partner. Any discussion on
how to solve the global challenges we face — from energy security, environmental degradation,and
transnational crime; to the global war on terror; to trade, investment, and finance — must include
the United States. Asia wants the U.S. to be an effective, global leader at a timewhen China, India,
and Russia are increasing their own regional and global power and influence.

American contact with southern Asia was very limited prior to World War II, and since that
time has been unusually dominated by military considerations. In the wake of European
decolonization, the United States became a major diplomatic and political force throughout the
region, and the products and style of its material culture have a widespread appeal. Cultural,
intellectual, and aesthetic influence has been less marked, largely because of the residual colonial
cultural bias, the appeals of the new nationalism, fear of American psychological "neoimperialism,"
and awe of America's strength and wealth. In the region, many American efforts to communicate
cultural universals have failed because of the strident cold-war atmosphere on China's frontiers.
Cultural exchange programs have been somewhat more successful, but America's unique location
and wealth do not always speak to Asia's needs. In an environment characterized by suspicion and
envy, higher levels of contact and communication between America and southern Asia may, in fact,
further estrange the United States and the states of South and Southeast Asia.

America has had a huge influence on the culture of the Philippines. In 1898, the United
States declared war on Spain, ultimately resulting in what is called the Treaty of Paris, in which the
Spanish agreed to give up the islands of the Philippines in exchange for $20,000,000. The
Philippines had been ruled by the Spanish for nearly ____ years. During first years, there were some
conflicts between the U.S. and The Philippines. But during World War I, they came together and the
Filipinos fought alongside the Americans. After WWI ended, the U.S. continued to rule over the
Philippines, and gradually their relationship became much more friendly. In 1934, the
Tydings/McDuffie Law was passed, making the Philippines commonwealth of the U.S. The United
States agreed to give the Philippines 10 years to prepare for their complete independence. But
because of WWII and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, that promise was not realized until
1946. On July 4, 1946, the United States declared the Philippines an independant nation. Now, the
relation between Americans and Filipinos are very friendly and warm. Filipinos love America and
Americans. They often decorate their jeepneys with american flags or “God Bless the USA.” They
also enjoy American music and clothing, while still retaining their own Filipino way of life.

When the United States took over the Philippines, the people began to be free to join
whatever religion they wanted. (During the Spanish rule, the Catholic church was established as the
national religion and was strongly enforced). Because of this new found religious freedom, there
began to be many different churches besides Catholicism. Today, it’s remarkable to see just how
many different Christian churches there are in the Philippines – this religious diversity has become a
big part of the culture.

Americans introduced the idea of free education to the Philippine islands. The United States
even sent teachers to help establish schools where the Filipino children could have a free education.
A large group of these teachers were called “Thomasites,” named after the boat that they came on,
called Thomas.

During this time, English began to be taught in the schools, and this is the language that the
teachers would use. Even today, most Filipinos can’t help but mix in English words when they
speak. “Taglish” has literally become part of the culture. In fact, English is now the 2nd national
language. Lots of English words have made their way into the Tagalog language. Often they are
pronounced the same, but the dictionary spelling is Filipino-ized.

Also, when it comes to lifestyle, different kind of foods that Filipino loves to eat we are all
influenced since then by the American country.

Because of the American influence in different countries all over the Southeast Asian
countries, especially the Philippines the countries said as above mention we become united as one,
different alliance in other nations been brought together when it comes to political aspects, growth
of economic (labor and employment) especially to china and to our country which is the Philippines,
Culture, education, Military forces and many more things which results are really capable and makes
us more convenient for many countries which brought us to be more responsible in many ways.