The Task of History

Addressing the Pandemic in the Philippines Necessitates a New Economic Paradigm

A Commons Perspective on Human-Nature Relations: Analysis, Vision, and Strategies for Alternative Futures

The Political Economy of the ASEAN Regionalisation Process

IPE scholarship about Southeast Asia : Theories of development and state-market-society relations

Contemporary Southeast Asia is a diverse region that is fully integrated into the world economy. Its eleven constituent countries are distinct with unique historical, political, economic, and cultural configurations – as such, they develop unevenly within, and respond accordingly to, the evolution of the global capitalist system. This chapter provides a survey of literatures, themes and debates that have significantly contributed to the study of Southeast Asia from the discipline of international political economy (IPE). It shows how specific IPE scholarship about Southeast Asia since the 1950s have been framed within the general theories of development (i.e., modernization and dependency) …

Coordinate Globally, Serve Locally

What would a desirable and viable global organization of progressive movements look like in the context of the historical conjuncture of crises-ridden capitalism? I propose here a reorientation of progressive politics that are attuned to both the fundamentals of structural change and the basic daily needs of human beings. nonPeerReviewed

Southeast Asia : Regionalism of the Commons

The Private Turn in Nordic-Asia Development Cooperation

Nationalism that violates the dignity of human beings deserves condemnation

From a general viewpoint, the relative popularity of right-wing populist politicians and nationalist movements arises from the protracted crises of liberal democracy and neoliberal capitalism across the world. We are at a historical moment when the ideological hegemony of American-European liberalism is being challenged by various interest groups, particularly from both the political right and the political left at the same time. Asia’s present and future are engaged in these conflict-ridden processes of change. The emerging version of nationalistic ideologies in parts of Asia today can be construed both as a symptom of, and a response to, these crises. nonPeerReviewed

Politics and Sports Capitalism in the Southeast Asian Games

The Southeast Asian Games has been negatively politicised since the 1950s. It has sported a complex interplay of colonialism, decolonisation, nationalism, geopolitics, patronage and capitalism. Repurposing it for the well-being of individual athletes and the regional sporting culture is long overdue. Yet, to depoliticise sports toward positive purpose necessitates collective political action. nonPeerReviewed

Authoritarian Neoliberalism : Its Ideological Antecedents and Policy Manifestations from Carl Schmitt’s Political Economy of Governance

The regime of authoritarian neoliberalism is underway. In contemporary political economy of governance, this regime has been construed as a crisis response of the capitalist class to manage the conflict-ridden consequences of economic globalization; and, as an ideological project of a section of the ruling elites to justify the embedding of market-oriented development processes in a politically repressive government institution. To contribute to recent scholarship attempts at defining the character and tendencies of this emergent regime, the article traces one of its key ideological antecedents from Carl Schmitt’s earlier formulation for a “strong state, free economy”. It then presents a su…

Human Rights Against Populism : A Progressive Response to the Politics of Duterte and Mahathir

As the world celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 2018–2019, the region of Southeast Asia highlights two compelling political phenomena: the emergent ‘authoritarian populism’ of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines and the return to the ‘Asian Values’ of Mahathir Mohamad in Malaysia. nonPeerReviewed

Demystifying Duterte’s Populism in the Philippines

Rethinking Samir Amin’s legacy and the case for a political organization of the global justice movement

Juego argues that the new Internationale’s “primary organizational function should be the global coordination of actions of progressive grassroots movements from country to country.” He calls for a ‘learning organization,’ where the new Internationale supports “a continuous dialogue between bottom-up and top-down approaches to decision-making.” He sees it as “[a]kin to a global coordinating council” meaning that it works to integrate and synthesize the “varying initiatives, campaigns, and mass actions at all geographical levels of membership” while remaining mindful of the “dialectics between reform and revolution.” The new Internationale must, moreover, be “grounded on a pragmatic understa…

The Institutions of Authoritarian Neoliberalism in Malaysia: A Critical Review of the Development Agendas Under the Regimes of Mahathir, Abdullah, and Najib

After toppling the 61-year dominant Barisan Nasional through a historic election victory in May 2018, expectations are high for the new ruling government led by Mahathir Mohamad and the Pakatan Harapan to fulfil their promises for socio-economic reforms and regime change in Malaysia. But what have been the institutions of the prevailing regime that need to be reformed and changed? This article offers a critical review of the evolving development agendas since the 1990s of the successive governments of Mahathir Mohamad, Abdullah Badawi, and Najib Razak, each couched in different catchphrases: Wawasan 2020, Islam Hadhari, and 1Malaysia. A close reading of these programs suggests that their su…

The Philippines 2017 : Duterte-led Authoritarian Populism and Its Liberal-Democratic Roots

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte led a phenomenal campaign to win the 2016 national election. During his first two years in power Duterte has become the protagonist and exemplar of a key new development – the social formation of a regime of authoritarian populism. Based on an analysis of news reports, public debates, survey results, and official policy documents from 2017, the article examines various features of this emergent regime and then illuminates the historical-institutional mechanisms that brought it about. The inquiry is predicated on an understanding that the old EDSA Republic’s liberal-democratic regime has been marked by intractable socio-economic crises since its installat…

Justice in the Sustainability Curriculum

On Martial Law at 50 : Fact-Checking the Marcos Story, Countering the EDSA History

To fact-check and counter the historical denialism of the Marcos family, there is need for a counterfactual history analysis of the failings of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. nonPeerReviewed