Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it.
Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far
and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
"The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver

Roundtable of UP Graduate Students in International Studies Association (ISA) Conference in Hong Kong

Details

Ms. Janina Tan at the International Studies Association (ISA) Asia Pacific Conference in Hong Kong.

 Ms. Janina Tan, a student of the UP Asian Center, attended the International Studies Association (ISA) Asia-Pacific Conference, which was held from 25 to 27 June 2016 at the City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Along with other UP students, Ms. Tan was part of a roundtable, “Networks in Asia: Opportunities for Small and Medium Powers?” Below is a write-up on the roundtable:

Much theorizing in International Relations, ranging from neorealism, and neoliberalism to Wendt’s constructivism, consciously incorporates assumptions about the agent-structure problem in the social sciences. The parsimony that Waltz advocates is based upon structural-level theorizing rather than agential power, a feature that has carried over to reiterations of neorealism and neoliberalism. On the other hand, an appreciation of the nuances in agents or states is deemed as crucial to theorists such as Moravczik and Wendt. The appropriation of Network Theory into the study and theorizing of International Relations has contributed to our understanding of how agent and structures can be linked by focusing on the relational power of agents within a complex set of relationships or networks across different fields of national interest. The objects of study here are not primarily the attributes or material resources of nation-states, rather their position in a particular network, as well as the opportunities that this offers vis-à-vis other states. This roundtable explores the role of different actors in formal and informal networks in an Asian context and how they navigate through the different power relationships within these networks to achieve particular goals.

Joining Ms. Tan in the roundtable were panel chair, Ms. Sherlyn Mae Hernandez; Frances Antoinette Cruz; and Joseph Mari Fabian, all International Studies majors at the Department of Political Science in UP Diliman, who take classes at the UP Asian Center. The roundtable was one of two presented by the Philippine International Studies Organization (PhISO). Ms. Tan is an Asian Studies major specializing in China Studies at the UP Asian Center. 

Photo: Ms. Tan (2nd from right) with fellow panelists and PhISO founder, Dr. Nassef Manabilang Adiong (right). 

The ISA Asia Pacific Conference was held to “investigate the ways in which IR (as both practice and theory) is being transformed in the Asia-Pacific.” To read the program and other information, visit the ISA Asia Pacific conference website.

The International Studies Association (ISA) has been “the premier organization for connecting scholars and practitioners in fields of international studies since 1959. ISA was founded in 1959 to promote research and education in international affairs. With well over six thousand members in North America and around the world, ISA is the most respected and widely known scholarly association in this field. ISA cooperates with 57 international studies organizations in over 30 countries, is a member of the International Social Science Council, and enjoys nongovernmental consultative status with the United Nations” (ISA website). 

The UP Asian Center offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. The Center offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. Get an overview of these programs. The Asian Center also houses a peer-reviewed, open-access journal, Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia. It has published several books and monographs, and hosts or organizes various lectures and conferences.