Home Page
Welcome to The World As I See.Com!
The World As I See is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan and nongovernmental recent website manned by a small diverse voluntary group in the Philippines. It is a research based site devoted primarily to international relations(ir) for ir and political science students, academe, NGOs, IGOs, think tanks, foreign service, practitioners and the public via opinions, dialogue, commentaries, original articles, published materials, excerpts, reports and working papers.
The World As I See seeks likeminded global partners / affiliates / linkages and contributors. Our site materials can be used for educational purposes with prior consent and acknowledgement. Reactions are welcome from valued readers but regret we are unable to respond to all due to pressure of work. For inquiries, please contact us at info@theworldasisee.com
Vision
Think Global
Mission
To share and impart through knowledge and academic study of international relations (ir) for understanding, cooperation and peace.
Who We Are
Professor Valentine N. Anthony is the founder, managing director and contributing editor of The World As I See. International Relations (IR) is his cup of tea with research interests in ethnicity, ethnic conflicts and political development of states.
He has been a community worker, teacher, writer, author, journalist, resource speaker and academe. He was educated in Sri Lanka, Malaysia,Singapore and USA. He has an MA in International Affairs specializing in Southeast Asian Studies from the Center for International Studies, Ohio University and an MA in Comparative Politics and International Relations from the University of Kansas, US. He holds a diploma in International Politics of Southeast Asian Politics from the then University of Singapore. He graduated in Education with a History major from the former Singapore Teacher’s Training College. He performed protocol duties for visitng dignitaries of the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was one of the presiding offices in Singapore's national elections.
Professor Anthony has lectured in Western Civilization in the Universities of Kansas and Ohio, USA. He taught IR, Comparative Governments, Political Theory, Asia-Pacific Studies and Southeast Asian Politics in Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, UK London School of Economics (LSE) of the University of London and Leeds University in their external degree programs in Singapore and Singapore Ministry of Defense. In the Philippines, likewise in the University of the Philippines, Saint Louis University and University of Baguio where he served concurrently as Assistant Director of R & D and Director of International Affairs. He was a Research Fellow at the Singapore Institute of Southeast Studies (ISEAS) in 2003.
He is currently President of his NGO and Consultant to Philippines HyperMedia Global. His book “Defines, Dictates and Divides: International Relations in an Uncertain World” is in manuscript form. He resides in Baguio City, Philippines.
Dr. Lloyd V. Orduña is a co-founder and editorial board member of The World As I See. Guided by the belief that the academe is the predominant agent for change, he has been a dedicated academician for more than 23 years pursuing research-based solutions to pervading problems in the local and international community. He specializes in educational research methods and quantitative analysis. He published several materials, action researches, and articles addressing pressing academic and community concerns.
Dr. Orduña is a consultant in various organizations such as the Regional Technical Working Group of Cordillera Industry and Energy Research and Development Consortium DOST-CAR, Highland Agricultural Research and Development Consortium Regional Sectoral / Commodity Review, UB Institutional Research Review Board, and Regional Team of Experts on deregulation and autonomous status of HEIs in CAR. He is a member of the Ethics Review Board of the Department of Health and Department of Science and Technology and a lifetime member of the Philippine Association of Graduate Education. He is a visiting professor in Rajabhat Mahasarakan University in Thailand. He is also a sought-after lecturer in research in local, regional, national and international organizations.
During his term as a Director of UB Research and Development Center, the institution received the Best HEI Research Program (2nd runner-up national) by Commission on Higher Education (CHED). Also, because of his contribution to education and research, he received several university-wide and national citations, honors and awards.
Dr. Orduña has a BSc in Biology, BSc in Education, MA in Education, Ed.D in Educational Management, and Diploma in Special Education. He had been a professor, principal, assistant dean and director before he became the current Vice President for Administration of University of Baguio. With his experience as an academician and researcher, it is a privilege to have him on board The World As I See. Dr. Orduña resides in Baguio City Philippines.
Allan R. Visitacion is the founder, owner and General Manager of HyperMedia Global specializing on web design solutions / applications and IT development. He has designed websites for various business organizations in the Philippines, US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Korea and China. He also serves as a Web and IT Consultant to the Development Academy of the Philippines and Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration (EROPA) in the Philippines. He is currently looking at the impact of Web / IT on international relations (ir). Allan has a BA in Social Science with major in Poltical Science and Economics from the University of the Philippines. Allan is a co-founder and editor of The World As I See. He resides in Baguio City, Philippines.
International Relations: An Overview
by: Valentine Anthony
This is an introductory article on International Relations (hereafter ir / IR) which is about relations between and among states in peace and war. In this regard, ir is approached retrospectively through my childhood cum adult experiences and observations in Singapore, Ceylon now Sri Lanka and Malaya now Malaysia followed by a brief survey of the notion, nature and scope of ir from postwar to-date. read more...
For better or worse, wars remain with us
We remember and regret past wars but we repeat them well. Hence, the four-letter word "wars" haunts us.
Read more...
ANNOUNCEMENT
The World As I See is pleased to link / partner shortly with a UK based website http://www.e-ir.info hosted by a group of young British academics devoted to the study and understanding of international relations and international politics.
Managing Editor
Valentine Anthony
Dear readers,
As part of our project, The World As I See will be posting a series of selected articles from our valued Think Tank partners---The Stanley Foundation, Iowa.US; International Crisis Group (ICG), Brussels, Belgium; Refugees Studies Centre, Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK and Humanitarian Practice Network (HPN), Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London, UK. Their websites are in our website links.
Thank you.
Managing Editor
Valentine Anthony
INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP (BRUSSELS, BELGIUM )
China’s Myanmar Dilemma
Asia Report N°177,
Beijing/Jakarta/Brussels, 14 September 2009
Executive Summary
Each time global attention is focused on events in Myanmar, concerned stakeholders turn to China to influence the military government to undertake reforms. Yet simply calling on Beijing to apply more pressure is unlikely to result in change. While China has substantial political, economic and strategic stakes in Myanmar, its influence is overstated.Read more...
THE STANLEY FOUNDATION - THINK, SEPTEMBER 2009
By David Shorr
Making the "Gs" Work for the World: Principles for Summit Reform
How Leading Nations Lead. As more and more global challenges cry out for increased international cooperation, there is an urgent need for the leaders of the world’s influential nations to combine efforts for decisive action. The agenda is full for the upcoming Pittsburgh G-20 summit but, argues Stanley Foundation program officer David Shorr, world leaders should also update the process of summitry itself. Read the four main guidelines Shorr recommends for such a reform effort... Read more
Understanding the Challenge
by Gil Loescher and James Milner
The likelihood that those in protracted exile may spend significant amounts of time either in camp-like situations or unprotected in urban settings often has negative implications for their human rights and livelihoods as well as for states’ security... Read more
Myanmar or Burma?
Valentine Anthony
Long ago, as a History teacher, I used to refer to the present Myanmar as ‘Burma,’ to my students. But not after 1989 when Burma became the Union of Myanmar.
Today whenever the ruling Myanmar military junta takes the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to task, unfairly though, or crackdown on dissent, western journalists, media, commentators and scholars, except the diplomatic ASEAN, are quick to turn Myanmar into the old British ‘Burma’ leaving the new capital of Myanmar Yangoon, formerly Rangoon, intact. Read More...
What Happened to Mohamed al-Hanashi?
Naomi Wolf, Sept 09, 09, Project Syndicate.
NEW YORK – Mohammed al-Hanashi was a 31-year-old Yemeni citizen who was held at Guantánamo Bay without charge for seven years. On June 3, while I was visiting Guantánamo with other journalists, the press office there issued a terse announcement that al-Hanashi had had been found dead in his cell – an “apparent suicide.” Read more...
Commentary
“For Whom The Bell Tolls”
Baguio City, Philippines.
Oct 15, 2009
The World As I See could not see the world for nearly two weeks when tropical storm Parma (local name Pepeng) slammed Northern Luzon of the Philippines leaving 269 dead excluding hundreds of deaths when Ondoy struck Manila a few day earlier, leaving thousands hopeless, homeless and without food, water and personal belongings ravaged by heavy flash floods and landslides. Dams, dykes and canals played their sorrowful part. Destruction to infrastructures are not known yet. Communications--roads, telephone lines, television networks, internet and hand phone providers, all cut off. Read more...
TIMES OF CHALLENGE AND CONTROVERSY
By: Lloyd V. Orduña, Ed.D
Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “The ultimate measure of persons is not where they stand in times of comfort and convenience, but where they stand in times of challenge and controversy.”
When the Filipino community is on heightened alert with the hostage and other insurgency crisis brought by Abu Sayaf Group (ASG) and other militant groups, the internal wrangling in Congress, the politics of deception and broken promises, the destabilization moves, the economic depression, and other disturbing developments, where do we stand?
Read more...
STILL FIGHTING THE COLD WAR
Passion for Reason
By Raul C. Pangalangan
Philippines Daily Inquirer, November 13, 2009
FOR US IT'S AS IF THE COLD WAR HAD NEVER ended. We Filipinos are caught in a time warp and are still righting a war that has long been over. For us, the main threat to national security remains the communist rebellion. It is time we joined the rest of the world in recognizing that the main threat to our way of life is the rise of religious fundamentalism and its terrorist zealots. Why have we been so slow in doing so? Read more...
THE PARADOX OF DEMOCRACY
All---prime ministers, presidents, politicians, presidential, parliamentary, socialist, communist political systems, monarchies, military, colonialists, post colonialists (neo), rebels, insurgents and secessionists---claim they are democratic, some in the name of values, ideals, constitutions,god or whichever and some without any. And the ‘chosen few,’ whoever, abuse, torture and or kill their fellow citizens / beings in the name of whatever stripe of religion and democracy.
The World As I See will post few pieces on the paradox of democracy in due course to provoke our thoughts before 2010 dawns.
Managing Editor
WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DEMOCRACY?
Of Nearsighted Progress, Feral Howls, Consensus, Chaos, and a New Cold War in Kashmir by Arundhati Roy (copyright, 2009).
This post "What have Done to Democracy" is by courtesy of TomDispatch.com, September 28,2009. It is an introduction to "Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers" by Arundhati Roy published by Haymarket Books (2009). This article also appeared in the US--The Nation, Huntington Post, Washington Post and New York Times and UK The Guardian.
While we're still arguing about whether there's life after death, can we add another question to the cart? Is there life after democracy? What sort of life will it be? By "democracy" I don't mean democracy as an ideal or an aspiration. I mean the working model: Western liberal democracy, and its variants, such as they are. So, is there life after democracy?Read more...
DOES OBAMA BELIEVE IN DEMOCRACY FOR ALL?
by Matthew A. Hill in http://www.e-ir.info/?p=2000
I have been running a few ideas through my mind and with a colleague about President Obama’s attitudes to democracy promotion and I think I have reached an understanding that I want to share with you. The paradox that has been taunting me is this dilemma between the idealistic tenets of the mission that dictates America and its political system should be replicated around the world and the realism of accepting your neighbours for who they are not what you want them to be. Read more...
Democracy, the Worst Form of Government Ever Tried
by Bevin Chu in LewRockwell.com
"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." - Winston Churchill
"Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried." - Winston Churchill
Executive Summary: As the preceding quotes suggest, Winston Churchill was deeply ambivalent about democracy. On the one hand, he was not about to regurgitate the civics class twaddle we all ingested about Democracy with a capital D. On the other hand, he could see no better alternative. Read more...
Obama’s Vietnam Syndrome
Jonathan Schell
Copyright: www. project-syndicate.org
NEW HAVEN – There can be no military resolution to the war in Afghanistan, only a political one. Writing that sentence almost makes me faint with boredom. As US President Barack Obama ponders what to do about the war, who wants to repeat a point that’s been made thousands of times? Is there anyone on earth who does not know that a guerilla war cannot be won without winning the “hearts and minds” of the people? The American public has known this since its defeat in Vietnam. Read more...
THE LEADERSHIP QUAGMIRE IN IRAN
by Reza Molavi on January 5, 2010 in http://www.e-ir.info/?p=2000
The government of Mr. Ahmadinejad remains unwilling to acknowledge any culpability in the destruction of any property or the killing of more than ten or so protestors in the last few days of mourning processions, including the shooting of one of the opposition leader’s nephew. “The killing of Musavi’s nephew in the Ashura incidents is being investigated and the result will be announced soon,” Tehran police chief Azizollah Rajabzadeh told the ILNA news agency. The official line is that anti-regime terrorists carried out the killings in order to discredit the regime. Read more...
The U.S.-Israel Spat Over Settlements: Risks for Both Sides
by Andrew Lee Butters, Time, March 16, 2010
Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu had hoped that his apology for the poor timing of plans to expand Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem would have been enough to quell the resulting furor. Instead, the Obama Administration has opted to escalate the standoff into a major battle of political wills between Netanyahu and the White House — one in which neither side can easily back down despite the risks involved in hanging tough. Read more...
Rent-A-Rambos
by Eric Margolis, LewRockwell.com
A fascinating scandal has erupted in Washington that is exposing the sordid underbelly of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.
According to a New York Times investigation and other Washington sources, the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies have fielded covert mercenary networks in Afghanistan, Pakistan (AKA "Afpak"), and Iraq whose mission is to murder tribal militants and nationalists opposing Western occupation. Read more...
War in Iraq, Seven Years On
by Greg Mitchell, The Nation, March 19, 2010
The seventh anniversary of the start of the Iraq War dawned today with very little notice in the media, despite the huge (and ongoing) costs of the war, not the least of which the nearly 4,400 dead US military personnel and at least 100,000 deceased Iraqi civilians. What we have heard from commentators, again, this year is that the United States went to war with the overwhelming support of the public and the press. Actually, this is a myth. Read more...
Why UK diplomats dislike the 'special relationship' label
by Mark Tran, guardian,co, uk, March 28, 2010
According to two former diplomatic heavyweights the Foreign Office never saw anything special in UK-US relations.
Britain's professional diplomats dislike the term "special relationship" as it carries the burden of heightened expectations. When two former Foreign Office mandarins spoke before the Commons foreign affairs committee, they struck an unsentimental attitude. Read more...
Fragile States: next steps for the international community
Marta Foresti, Overseas Development Institute Blog (ODI), London, March 10, 2010.
Fragile states are at the top of the policy and political agenda for donors, and at the heart of the UK electoral debates on the future of international development. In its 2009 White Paper, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) commits to substantially increase bilateral aid to fragile states; in their Green Paper, the Conservatives define conflict as a development issue and peace and stability as pre-requisite of development. Whoever wins the UK elections in May, engaging in fragile states is going to remain high on the development agenda for the foreseeable future. Read more...
When Utopianism Is Shattered By Reality
by Tim Case. LewRockwell.com
"You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you."
"In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: Who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: Who does not obey shall not eat." ~ Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)
What sort of national leader persecutes the people within the nation he rules? That question can be answered in part by asking another question: Which Emperors led Rome in persecuting Christians? Serious students of Roman history are taught that it was under those Emperors which historians consider the "good" Emperors that Christians had the most to fear. Why? The answer resides in the assumption that the "good" Emperors were those men whose overriding concern was for the welfare of the Empire. Read more...
Making Multilateralism Work: How the G-20 Can Help the United Nations: Policy Analysis
Brief by Bruce Jones, The Stanley Foundation, April 2010
The moves in 2008-09, prompted by the global financial crisis, to convene the G-20 at the level of heads of state constituted the first major adaptation of global arrangements to better fit with the fact of the emerging powers. Clearly it will not be the last. G-20 negotiations have already given a critical impetus to governance reforms at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and The World Bank. read more...
Haiti's suffering is a result of calculated impoverishment. Last week's earthquake was a natural disaster, but the carnage is a result of a punitive relationship with the outside world
by Seumas Milne, guardian.co.uk, 20 jan 2010
There is no relief for the people of Haiti, it seems, even in their hour of promised salvation. More than a week after the earthquake that may have killed 200,000 people, most Haitians have seen nothing of the armada of aid they have been promised by the outside world. Instead, while the US military has commandeered Port-au-Prince's ¬airport to pour thousands of soldiers into the stricken Caribbean state, wounded and hungry survivors of the catastrophe have carried on dying. read more...
Haiti: A Creditor, Not a Debtor
By Naomi Klein The nation February 11, 2010
If we are to believe the G-7 finance ministers, Haiti is on its way to getting something it has deserved for a very long time: full "forgiveness" of its foreign debt. In Port-au-Prince, Haitian economist Camille Chalmers has been watching these developments with cautious optimism. Debt cancellation is a good start, he told Al Jazeera English, but "It's time to go much further. We have to talk about reparations and restitution for the devastating consequences of debt." In this telling, the whole idea that Haiti is a debtor needs to be abandoned. Haiti, he argues, is a creditor--and it is we, in the West, who are deeply in arrears. read more...
Conflict Risk Alert: Thailand by International Crisis Group
http://www.crisisgroup.org, Bangkok/Brussels, 30 April 2010
The Thai political system has broken down and seems incapable of pulling the country back from the brink of widespread conflict. The stand-off in the streets of Bangkok between the government and Red Shirt protesters is worsening and could deteriorate into an undeclared civil war. The country's polarisation demands immediate action in the form of assistance from neutral figures from outside. It is time for Thailand to consider help from international friends to avoid a slide into wider violence. Even the most advanced democracies have accepted this. read more...
Philippines: Pre-election Tensions in Central Mindanao
Asia briefing, No 103, International Crisis Group, Jakarta/ Brussels, 4 May 2010
As the Philippine election on 10 May 2010 draws nearer, voters in central Mindanao are focused on the political fallout from the “Maguindanao massacre”; clan politics; the new automated election system; and whether any agree¬ment between the Philippines gov-ernment and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is possible before President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo leaves office on 30 June. read more...
War Crimes in Sri Lanka
War Crimes in Sri Lanka,International Crisis Group, Asia Report No 191, 17 May 2010
Newly revealed evidence of war crimes in Sri Lanka last year makes an international inquiry essential. The latest report from the International Crisis Group, exposes repeated violations of international law by both the Sri Lankan security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the last five months of their 30-year civil war. That evidence suggests that the period of January to May 2009 saw tens of thousands of Tamil civilian men, women, children and the elderly killed, countless more wounded, and hundreds of thousands deprived of adequate food and medical care, resulting in more deaths.read more...
Cameron leads Britain into new coalition era
Cameron leads Britain into new coalition era by Keith Weir and Tim Castle, Tue May 11, Reuters
London (Reuters) – New Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives and the smaller Liberal Democrat party struck an agreement on Wednesday to form Britain's first coalition government since 1945.read more...
Bangkok Siege Ends, but Thailand Chaos Continues by Hannah Beech, TIME, 19 May 2010
The Bangkok ice cream vendor was doing brisk business selling cooling coconut sorbet to motorcycle drivers and a police officer clad in a flak jacket. But just 500 feet (150 m) away, temperatures were raging. With smoke billowing from a barricade made of burning tires, dozens of people cowered under a highway overpass as gunfire and explosions rang out around them. Ten minutes before, a glassy-eyed man with a bullet hole above his heart had been loaded onto the back of a pickup truck to be rushed off to the hospital. At least 14 people, including an Italian journalist, were reported killed on Wednesday, in a bloody climax to the two-month standoff between the Thai government and the Red Shirt protesters, which has claimed more than 70 lives, including civilians and soldiers.read more...
Assessing the Arguments For and Against Nuclear Proliferation by Bennett Collins, e-ir.com, May 20, 2010
Nuclear Proliferation in the modern day is one of the most heated topics as a result of, not only the various schools of thought on the topic, but also the fact that the subject has in the end become a critical matter of international security. This paper will aim to explain that, though both views on the proliferation and nonproliferation of nuclear weapons hold very strong arguments, both have weak spots in their claims as well. In order to properly assess the arguments, the paper will surround itself on key issues such as the safety of nuclear deterrence and the effectiveness of disarmament treaties to show the strengths and weaknesses both sides withhold. To start off, the proliferation argument supporting nuclear deterrence will first be briefly explained through the views of Kenneth Waltz. Following, it will then be shown that the views of a nonproliferation advocate, such as Robert Fischer, could easily debunk such a claim. Further on, the weaker nonproliferation argument on the effectiveness the role of nonproliferation treaties has within the international community will be discussed and examined. Finally, this nonproliferation based-argument will then be rebuked by the stronger, John Mearsheimer’s case supporting the selective proliferation of nuclear weapons. Essentially, this essay will show that although specific disputes on issues concerning nuclear proliferation can be assessed based upon which one is side is more effective with their argument, the general debate over nuclear disarmament is a more slightly ambiguous one to answer.read more...
Political dynasties will be Noynoy’s biggest problem by Anna Valmero, loQal.ph
(loQal.ph is a website owned and operated by Filquest Media Concepts, Inc. It works under the principle of giving voice to the voiceless, subjects not covered by traditional media because of their mad rush for scoops, topics, personalities and issues that sell publications, advertising space or airtime. To do this, the loQal.ph team produces stories, video, photos and other multimedia content types fit for the new media audience).read more...
LATEST ARTICLES