United States President Barack Obama sought to re-invigorate the US’ primacy in the Asia Pacific with a speech to the Australian Parliament in November 17, 2011, announcing a new foreign policy towards the region. Dubbed the “rebalancing strategy,” this plan sought to expand American presence within the Asia-Pacific by forging closer military, trade, and people-to-people ties with various states ...

The Philippine Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2017 is an opportune time to revive the National Branding Council proposal made by the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) in 20121 to build the international image and reputation of the country. Nation Branding is an important tool in managing a country’s identity across the globe forming part of public diplomacy (PD). PD covers aspects such as ...

The ASEAN Charter and key documents, such as the ASEAN Community Vision 2025: Forging Ahead Together, explicitly state that ASEAN maintains its centrality in the regional processes and in the conduct of its external affairs. Maintaining centrality is crucial to ASEAN’s success as a regional bloc and critical to its relevance in the international arena. Moreover, through ASEAN centrality, a rules-based ...

2015 was a fruitful year for Philippine micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as they witnessed and experienced strong momentum towards their development and eventual integration into the regional and global economies. Notably, several initia-tives and efforts aiming to link Philippine MSMEs into the Global Value Chains (GVCs) through the digital platform were simultaneously launched last year ...

After the successful hosting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, what is next for Philippine economic diplomacy in 2016? The presidential election in May 2016 provides an opportunity for the country to assess and recalibrate its policies to achieve the national interest. In the Department of Foreign Affairs, one policy that has been emphasized and will continue to be important is the promotion ...

In the last two years, a spate of press releases on disaster risk management underscored the value of strong Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) policies and programs, both in the local and international levels. In March 2015, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) released the Global Assessment Report (GAR) on DRR in which it noted that a country’s development may only be truly ...

The Philippines, as the APEC 2015 host country, played a crucial role in highlighting the importance of achieving inclusive economic growth and incorporating a development dimension in the form of sustained poverty reduction, productive employment, enhanced health conditions, better education, and higher quality of life. But what is needed in order to achieve inclusive growth for the Philippines? ...