History of Regionalization in Southeast Asia

Regionalization in Southeast Asia was rose after the Second World War. This idea was established by the
regional leaders to manage their shared interest, threats and opportunities. Early attempts at regional
integration, such as the United States backed SEATO (South-East Asian Treaty of Organization) and ASA
(Association of Southeast Asia) were marred by conflicts over the future of Borneo. This early attempt of
regionalization was the cause of the creation of the idea of New Regionalism. New Regionalism is a
process of construction and deconstruction by different players and changes according to the global
processes. This means that New Regionalism is the way of regional leaders to help and support each
others to cope with the challenges face by their regions and also to create a good relationship with the
other countries that will give benefits to the both of them in terms of economy, security, education,
environmental aspects, culture and etc. There is a lot of inter-governmental organizations established
around the world. One of this is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN), which is considered
as one of the most successful organization until now.

On 8 August 1967, five leaders – the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore
and Thailand – sat down together in the main hall of the Department of Foreign Affairs building in
Bangkok, Thailand and signed a document. By virtue of that document, the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) was born. The five Foreign Ministers who signed it – Adam Malik of Indonesia,
Narciso R. Ramos of the Philippines, Tun Abdul Razak of Malaysia, S. Rajaratnam of Singapore, and
Thanat Khoman of Thailand – would subsequently be hailed as the Founding Fathers of probably the
most successful inter-governmental organization in the developing world today. And the document that
they signed would be known as the ASEAN Declaration. Just like the other inter-governmental
organization. ASEAN has also their own principles. This are the: Mutual respect for the independence,
sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity, and national identity of all nations; The right of every State to
lead its national existence free from external interference, subversion or coercion; Non-interference in
the internal affairs of one another; Settlement of differences or disputes by peaceful manner;
Renunciation of the threat or use of force; and Effective cooperation among themselves. This principles
are should be followed by the country members to maintain the balance in the organization. It also
proclaimed that the ASEAN will be the representation of collective will of the nations of Southeast Asia
to bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices,
secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity.

Rannel

As a student, We should comply or submit all the school works that our professors required us to. One
of that is being responsible for a task given to you, such reporting a topic in front of your classmates. In
this way, the professors can evaluate what kind of student you are and how you will be graded.
My group selected a strategy on how we will deliver our assigned topics so we came up of using a
conference or giving a speech. I am the first reporter, acting like I represent another university and the
topic that I discussed was about Global Divide.

During my report or speech, everyone is very quiet so it seems like they are really listening to me. I
shared that Global Divide is caused by political power of rich countries in controlling poor countries,
economic dependency in each other and exportation and importation of resources. I explained that it
also caused by globalization wherein it was said that it only brought conflict, conflicts experiencing by
poor countries in the present. The economic activities of multinational companies I said that they are
taking advantage of their power as entities coming from rich countries to exploit resources, to have a
cheap labor and production and to dominate one's local economy. I also said that this is the reason why
there is a growing divisions in the global economy, that is why there is a wide gap between the rich or
developed countries and poor or developing countries. After my speech, my classmates gave me claps of
their hand for having a well presented and spoken speech, they even gave me their feedback about the
content and how I deliver my speech.

As a group, we did energizer and ice breaker to check if everyone is listening and those who answered
was awarded by lollipops and our professor also was given a chocolate and certification just a part of our
group strategy.

Grace

Dominguez, Jen Rose C.

PCBET 01-101A
Major Lenses of Global Relations

In order to make sense of the North and South Divide idea we must first understand the related theories
in this idea.

Realism – The view of International Politics that stresses competitiveness.

The states work only to increase its own power.

There are claims on Realism, some are these:

“The world is a harsh and dangerous place, the only certain in the world is power.”

“Powerful state will always be able to outdo and outlast its weaker competitors.”

As you can see Realism is based on power that is why wars are more likely to happen in Realism.

The most criticized yet most influential realist ideas came from Niccolo Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes.

Niccolo Machiavelli is one of the well-known realist thinkers. He is known with his book “The Prince” in
which he advised rulers to use violence as a tools against other state.

Thomas Hobbes is an English philosopher, Scientist and Historian. He believes that “Human being
naturally desires power in order to live well and they will never be satisfied with the power they have
unless they have more.”

Realist is pessimistic or tend to see the worst aspect of things or result.

State as the key global actors, states prioritizes self-interest and survival which is also based on how
human nature is being characterized: selfish and greedy.

In interpreting the North and South Divide, realists assumes that the countries in the global north
interact with the countries in global south only to promote their own interest.

Liberalism/Constructivism – Political Doctrine that is promoting and enhancing the freedom of every
individual.

Constructivism – Constructing knowledge based on your own experience.

Liberals and constructivist have almost the same assumptions.

Liberals assumes that through trade and economic interdependence division and war are less likely to
happen which is contradicting with the Realism.

On the other hand constructivists also convey cooperation, trust and peace among international actors.

Immanuel Kant believes that “Universal and perpetual peace is possible because states are capable of
cooperation and value mutual respect.”

They both offer that the principle of balance and harmony is found in all forms of social interactions, but
all of these are possible only if these are based on the existing norms and conduct.

Conclusion (Unit 3: A World of Regions)

Edralin, Alyssa Marie B.

Last October 1, 2019 I was assigned to tackle the overall discussion in Unit 3: A
World of Regions in our Group. The discussion comprises of the Global Divides (Global
North and Global South), and the Major Lenses of Global Relations which are Realism,
Liberalism/Constructivism, The Critical Perspectives that includes Marxism and Post
Modernism. I have talk about that as globalization exists, enhancing as well as
strengthening of the Global dilemma is moreover noticed. Although these are not merely
apparent amid the geographical division of the South as well as in the North. Therefore,
this validates that the poverty in the Global South are continuously globalized. Some
countries in the Global south had struggled and eventually achieved “affluence” or
development. In this way, the Global North may draw inspiration from the South
Experiences.

I’ve also tackled the Brandt line which was developed by Willy Brandt in the
1980’s; it was a way of showing how the world was geographically split into relatively
richer and poorer nations. According to this Model, Richer countries are almost located
in the Northern Hemisphere, with the exception of Australia and New Zealand. While the
Poorer Countries are mostly located in tropical regions and in the Southern
Hemisphere.

In conclusion in my report the world today is much more complex than the Brandt
line depicts as many poorer countries have experienced significant economic and social
development. However, inequality within countries has also been growing, because of
the Global North and a Global South referring respectively to richer and poorer
communities, which are found both within and between countries. When we say
Inequality there are many causes including the availability of Natural Resources,
different levels of health and education, the nature of a country’s economy and its
industrial sectors and etc.

Last October 1, 2019, we, the Group 3, were done in our two-day Supreme Student Council Conference
as our group report presentation in "The Contemporary World". Our topic is all about "A World of
Regions" wherein it includes two sub-topics namely "Global Divides: The North and the South" and
"Asian Regionalism". On September 26, 2019, we started the first part of our presentation which was
discussed by the first five delegates from different universities and colleges along greater Manila area.
Before the actual presentation begun, we first prepared an enegizer so that everybody would be
entertained and hyped during the entire presentation. We also make sure that each and every audience
would understand the topic that we are trying to imply to them with the best that we can give. In line
with this, we also prepared different ice breakers for them to have a thorough understanding of the
topics.

As the conference properly begun, each of the delegates including myself, started to deliver our
respective speech with the particular topic assigned to us. The topic that I discussed is all about
"Conceptualizing Global South". The first thing that I did is define the concept of Global South. I
mentioned that Global South is not literally a term used to classify countries located in the southern part
of the globe, but rather it is a term used by the contemporary critics to highlight the imbalance
distribution of global power in which they noticed that there are some states who use most of the
advantages while others are left behind. In simply put, this means that there is an unequal power
between states wherein one has the dominant power while the other one has the less power.
Therefore, Global South is the classification for countries or states who are still developing and less
developed. However, those countries or states who are developed and industrialized are classified as
Global North. One best example of Global South is the Philippines while USA is a concrete example for
Global North. In the process of presentation, I showed them two different coffee brands such as the
Starbucks of USA and Infinitea of Philippines. From that example, USA is the one who used most of the
advantages while Philippines is left behind. Starbucks is well known here in the Philippines with different
branches located all over the country. That is why in terms of marketing products, USA has more power
compared to our country, the Philippines.