The purpose of this study is to analyze the foreign policy of a weak state, the Philippines, from 1972 to 1981. The focus of this study is on the Philippines’ authoritarian regime and its foreign policy change toward the United States, the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), and the Socialist Bloc. I examined two major factors, internal and external. These are authoritarianism, as exemplified by martial law in the Philippines, and greater power policy in the region, in this case, U.S. policy in Asia. The first explanatory factor, authoritarianism, was chosen as a concept to be examined regarding its relation to foreign policy change. The second explanatory factor, U.S. policy in the region in the late sixties and seventies, was examined on the basis of the existence of an action reaction framework in international relations. In the Philippines’ foreign policy change, it was seen that the external variable, great power policy, was one of the sources for change. The internal variable, authoritarianism, served as an intervening variable between the sources and foreign policy change itself