PUP-PHISO forum: Philippine IR and Security
A collaborative forum between PUP and PHISO entitled Philippine IR and Security. The guest lecturers are Asst. Prof. Frances Antoinette Cruz (PHISO President and faculty member at UP Diliman) and Mr. Patrick Dave Bugarin (PhD Candidate, National Chengchi University in Taiwan). The forum will be held on September 07, 2017 (Thursday) from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM at Cebu Room at PUP Graduate School located at M.H. del Pilar Campus, Valencia St. near R. Magsaysay Blvd., Santa Mesa, Manila, 1016 Metro Manila, Philippines.
Asst. Prof. Frances will lecture about “Knowledge Production on the ‘international’ in Southeast Asia: The case of academic journal publications in the Philippines.” The emergence of post-colonial, particularist and pluralist IR and the re-discovery of concepts, theories and practices that have structured human interactions across the globe have opened possibilities for the discussion of the role of Global South in the theory and praxis of IR. For instance, Acharya (2014) noted that the concept of agency in IR, the units of analysis and the manner by which IR is researched and studied would necessarily expand in scope if the experiences and praxes of the world beyond the West were to be included within the field of study of IR. The impetus to embark on collaborative ventures with area studies to retrieve specialized knowledge for IR begs fundamental questions as to what ‘counts’ as IR, what counts as knowledge in IR and how to determine a common conceptual ground by which phenomena that go beyond one’s locality can be regarded within the scope of the study of the ‘international’. In this essay, I explore the production of knowledge in four journals that are published in the Philippines and/or with significant participation of institutions or associations based in the Philippines on the topic of the international. In the introduction, I present a background on local experiences and history in the Philippines that mirror experiences with IR and the broader field of Social Science in Southeast Asia. Secondly, I argue that Rosenberg (2016) offers an inroad for IR in the Global South by critically engaging with the ontology of IR and reintroducing the concept of uneven and combined development into the field. Rosenberg’s concept of societal multiplicity, taken together with broader definitions of what encompasses the ‘international’, is then used as a framework for the selection of journal articles. Lastly, I take the case of the subject matter of International Relations and International Studies in selected journal publications in the Philippines and reflect on how these relate to Southeast Asian trends in the production of research and the construction of academies as well as theory production.
Mr. Patrick lectures on “Securitization of the Global War on Terror and Counterterrorism against the Abu Sayyaf Group in the Philippines.” According to him, the ‘Global War on Terror’ is an ongoing effort to curb the rise of terrorism. It is a collective effort where the Philippines, being a staunch ally of the United States of America, is a party to this cause. This research tries to provide understanding and description of the concepts of issue mobilization and its consequent construction of social reality by subjecting it to the theory of securitization. Its framework of analysis offers a practical approach to the understanding of security that provides significant information through the identification of the speech act that conceives of an intersubjective understanding to treat an existential threat to a referent object enabling, justifying, and legitimizing extraordinary measures. Specifically, this research looks into the mobilization of the Global War on Terror vis-à-vis the counterterrorism cooperation against the Abu Sayyaf Group. The case offers an avenue to understand the process and more importantly, the performative component of securitization. This research establishes the US as a securitizing actor, terrorism and its terror cells as existential threat, the parties affirming to the Global War on Terror and all of humankind as referent objects, and more importantly the extraordinary measures through cooperation that were justified and legitimized along the process. This research provides an idea about who securitizes what, how and how much emphasizing an intersubjective process that sustains a security issue, its security community, and the socially constructed reality. This research is relevant to the study of International Relations and Security elaborating on the assumptions of the Copenhagen School of Thought.
The Programme
Morning Session
8:30-9:00 – Registration
9:00-9:05 – Invocation
9:05-9:20 – Opening remarks by Prof. Dr. Sanjay P. Claudio (Dean of CPSPA)
9:20-9:30 – Introduction of the speaker by Mr. Erickson Calata (faculty member at CPSPA)
9:30-10:15 – Lecture on Philippine International Relations by Asst. Prof. Frances Antoinette Cruz (PHISO and UP Diliman)
10:15-10:45 – The discussants are Mr. Paulo Benedicto C. Villar (faculty member at CSSD), Ms. Patricia Villa (faculty at CPSPA), and Mr. Ivan Guison (student president of Political Science Society).
10:45-11:30 – Open forum moderated by Mr. Erickson Calata (faculty member at CPSPA)
11:30-11:45 – Awarding of certificate and token of appreciation
11:45-1:00 – Lunch Break
Afternoon Session
1:00-1:10 – Introduction of the speaker
1:10-1:55 – Lecture on Securitization of the Global War On Terror by Mr. Patrick Dave Bugarin (National Chengchi University, Taiwan)
1:55-2:25 – The discussants are Mr. JM Lanuza (faculty member at CPSPA) and Ms. Emy Ruth Gianan (faculty member at CPSPA)
2:25-3:10 – Open forum moderated by Mr. Brian Doce (faculty member at DLSU Manila)
3:10-3:20 – Awarding of certificate and token of appreciation
3:20-3:30 – Closing remarks by Assoc. Prof. Antonius C. Umali (faculty member at CPSPA and Chief of the Center for Public Administration and Governance Studies)
Philippine International Studies Organization (PHISO) 