Roundtable 1:

Chair: Sherlyn Mae Hernandez

Formal and Informal Networks in Asia: Opportunities for small and medium powers?
Much theorizing in International Relations, ranging from neorealism, and neoliberalism to Wendts
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, as network theory focuses on the relational power of agents within a complex set of 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--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.
Roundtable 2:
Chair: Frances Antoinette Cruz
International Relations in Asia: Quo Vadis, Philippine IR?
International Relations has long been featured as a regular course offering or subject in higher
education institutions in Asia and in particular, the Philippines. However, despite a number of attempts
to utilize regional or national perspectives vis--vis Western paradigms and assumptions that dominate
IR, these have yet to be widely integrated into curricula or programs of study. The diverse educational
landscape of IR in the Philippines and the countrys entanglement in global networks offers
possibilities of discussion about what the Philippines has contributed and can contribute to the field of
International Relations, and conversely, how IR has been viewed in the Philippines. In this roundtable
we aim to discuss the pedagogy and history of IR and its various iterations in Philippine education
international studies, global studies, global politics and so on, as well as what effect that this may
have, along with the Philippines role in global and regional events, for a Philippine IR theory.
Discussions will also revolve around the assumptions of a paradigm that can retain the explanatory
power that is so crucial in dominant theories but also incorporates the nuances that make a Philippine
IR unique to its context.