Pauline Eadie

Philippines Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs), Presidential Trickery and the War on Terror

This paper analyses the impact of the War on Terror on Filipino Oversees Foreign Workers (OFWs). It argues that the War on Terror presents risk, but also opportunity for migrant workers. The Philippines has around 10 million of its nationals working overseas, many in the Middle East. OFWs literally keep the Philippine economy afloat. They are lauded as national heroes whilst also being an indicator of the failure of economic governance in the Philippines. This paper examines the kidnapping of Angelo de la Cruz, an OFW, in Iraq. It examines what this episode and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyos (GMA) subsequent withdrawal from the Coalition of the Willing tells us about the importance of OFWs for the Philippine economy, society, and political survival. This explanation is set within the wider of context of the Philippine–American relationship. It is argued that GMA risked the wrath of the United States when she abandoned of the Coalition of the Willing. However, a satisfactory resolution to the hostage crisis was key to her political survival at that time. In conclusion it is shown that the episode was no more than a minor blip, as the United States and the Philippines have many more reasons to be friends than adversaries.

Contrasting responses to the US ‘war on terror’: perspectives from Europe and Asia

In June 2006, the Institute of Asia Pacific Studies and the Centre for the Study of European Governance, both based in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham, convened a conference entitled ‘Contrasting responses to the US “war on terrorism”: perspectives from Europe and Asia’. The following articles are based on selected papers presented at this conference. The 9/11 attacks galvanized the United States into demanding that all other nations align ‘either with or against us’ in the war on terror (WOT). The following articles examine responses from within Europe and Asia to this American demand. Key trends can be identified in relation to the impacts on civil liberties, the linkage of domestic and regional ‘threats’ with the WOT agenda, and challenges to the way that security, democracy and the rule of law are understood and practised. These articles present strategic culture as an explanation for diverse responses to the WOT and also examine the pursuit of self-interested state agendas within the rubric of the global terror threat. Strategic culture finds that states have predetermined ideas on both the nature of the threats they face and the range of responses available to them. Therefore perceptions of, and responses to, threats cannot be explained by rational calculation alone. Wyn Rees’s opening article argues that US commitment to military force as a counterterrorist strategy is indicative of the fight against terrorism being a ‘war’. European counterterrorist responses reflect the duality of the presence of the European Union and differing policing and judicial systems amongst individual member states. This results in a hybrid system of counterterrorist governance in Europe. In Asia, responses to the WOT have been fragmented, given the absence of a shared strategic culture, a commitment to noninterference and sovereignty, and differing experiences of Islamic influence. The results of these differences have been a range of bilateral and multilateral engagements with the US and varied perceptions of both the threat from terrorism and whether this can rightly be described as a ‘war’. The following two articles by Richard Jackson and Neil Renwick examine discourse and explore how terrorist threats and counterterrorist responses are constructed through language. Jackson analyses how language establishes the ideational conditions of terrorism/counterterrorism, how this differs between the EU and the US and how this has evolved over time. He argues that the EU has tended to present terrorism as a ‘crime’ whilst the US articulates it as an act of ‘war’. Jackson contends that the distinction between the two terms informs the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Volume 20, Number 2, June 2007

Post-disaster social capital: trust, equity, bayanihan and Typhoon Yolanda

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of disaster rehabilitation interventions on bonding social capital in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda. Design/methodology/approach: The data from the project is drawn from eight barangays in Tacloban City, the Philippines. Local residents and politicians were surveyed and interviewed to examine perceptions of resilience and community self-help. Findings: The evidence shows that haphazard or inequitable distribution of relief goods and services generated discontent within communities. However, whilst perceptions of community cooperation and self-help are relatively low, perceptions of resilience are relatively high. Research limitations/implications: This research was conducted in urban communities after a sudden large-scale disaster. The findings are not necessarily applicable in the rural context or in relation to slow onset disasters. Practical implications: Relief agencies should think more carefully about the social impact of the distribution of relief goods and services. Inequality can undermine community level cooperation. Social implications: A better consideration of social as well as material capital in the aftermath of disaster could help community self-help, resilience and positive adaptation. Originality/value: This study draws on evidence from local communities to contradict the overarching rhetoric of resilience in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda.

Book Review: Elaine Chase and Grace Bantebya-Kyomuhendo (eds), Poverty and Shame: Global Experiences

inductive theory for which he provides the acronym ‘LIFESHAPERS’. The conclusion is that the impact of liberalisation, the influence of states and the actions of regulatory authorities all influence whether a firm becomes an alpha or beta. Overall, Chari’s book is effective in logically guiding the reader through the gap that exists in the literature between privatisation and M&A. His use of signposting and consistent use of summaries ensure that the book is easy to follow. The detailed analyses of the different sectors and good evidence underlying the analyses offer new and useful insights into what happened to firms after privatisation and why firms can be characterised as ‘alpha’ or ‘beta’. The use of the ‘alpha–beta’ theoretical conceptualisation is not only helpful in deconstructing the key issues in the book, but it has further application for social scientists seeking to determine what happened to any privatised firm. Finally, while the use of the acronym ‘LIFESHAPERS’ at first appears to be odd, the theory underlying it is well evidenced and the memorable term helps the reader to easily recollect the conclusions of the work – conclusions which help to shed light on an important yet seldom researched area.

Counter-terrorism, Smart Power and the United States

This article examines smart power, specifically in relation to US counter-terrorism initiatives, focusing on US foreign aid as a soft power instrument. Economic aid and military aid are disbursed under the auspices of USAID and the military is tasked with soft and hard power strategies that have proven problematic to manage as ‘an integrated grand strategy’. Identifying variables that accurately indicate the success or otherwise of smart power as a counter-terror strategy is problematic. Nevertheless a tentative correlation can be drawn between high levels of US aid and low levels of trust in the US in frontline Islamic states. This has led to slippage between hard and soft power and un-smart policy. Consequently a gap has emerged between what the US hopes that the international community will respond to in terms of smart power as a counter-terror initiative and what actually happens. The US has tended to revert to hard power tools in the face of this gap. I argue that foreign aid must not only be soft but ‘sticky’ in order for smart power strategies to succeed.

Introduction: Labour Issues in Asia and the Diaspora

The four papers in the following themed section are drawn from a conference hosted by the Institute of Asia Pacific Studies at the University of Nottingham in June 2009. The title of the conference was “Labour Issues in Asia and the Diaspora”. As the title suggests, the papers presented at the conference were focused on issues of labour management within national territories but also the social and economic impact of the movement of labour and production across borders under conditions of globalisation. Three of the following papers focus on issues relating to the Philippine diaspora, the fourth analyses the production of sports footwear across Southeast Asia. The Philippine diaspora of Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs) literally keeps the Philippine economy afloat, as detailed by E. San Juan Jr and Pauline Eadie. The OFW system is now an institutionalised industry in the Philippines and 10 million Filipinos are contracted abroad at any one time. The Philippines economy is heavily dependent on the remittances sent home by OFWs; however, this has fuelled a material culture of spending, as evidenced by the growth of shopping malls around Manila, rather than a culture of saving and investment. As a general rule, national development has not benefited from OFW remittances in the Philippines. The OFW phenomenon has generated significant social costs as families, often with very young children, are missing at least one parent, sometimes both. This has led to divorce and lack of parental guidance for the children and adolescents left behind, frequently in the care of grandparents. This familial disintegration is commonly coupled with a relatively cash-rich household for OFW families. The physical and emotional cost on migrants is also high. For every high-profile abuse case such as those of executed Flor Contemplacion and incarcerated Sarah Balabagan many others suffer in silence under of conditions of abuse, low wages and long hours. Many others again end up anonymously transported back to the Philippines in a wooden box to their final resting place. Despite OFWs being lauded as “heroes” by the Philippine government for their sacrifices, the OFW phenomenon is a national disgrace and serves to highlight the failure of the Philippines to industrialise, redistribute its productive assets away from the landed oligarchy or clamp down on mass rent seeking and corruption in governance. Also culpable are the international players, both states and conglomerates, which have capitalised on OFWs as a source of cheap skilled and unskilled

The Natural Environment

In his inauguration speech in 1949 President Truman first coined the phrase ‘underdeveloped’. This became a catch-all category for those areas known, during the Cold War, as the ‘Third World’. Subsequently a de facto understanding emerged that the relationship between economic activity and states, societies and indeed natural environments could be categorised in terms of their levels of ‘development’. States might be more or less developed, but the underlying rationale was that everyone was bound to the market-orientated path of progress and development. The inevitability of this path was said to lie in the ideas of founding father of liberal economics Adam Smith and the belief that prosperity would ‘trickle down’ and bring wealth to all peoples and nations.