Environmental protection is an increasingly salient topic for contemporary society, especially in the context of the climate crisis. People all around the world are engaging in environmental...Show moreEnvironmental protection is an increasingly salient topic for contemporary society, especially in the context of the climate crisis. People all around the world are engaging in environmental activism, yet environmentalism research has disproportionately centered on the West. Considering how most countries on the front lines of climate change are non-Western, this gap must be rectified. Southeast Asia (SEA) is a region severely overlooked in this regard, particularly in terms of what environmentalism actually brings here. There is insufficient knowledge on how SEA states respond to environmental activism, despite the relevance for its citizens and environmental sector practitioners, who witness some of the worst repercussions of environmental degradation. Therefore, this paper aims to expand our understanding of state responses to SEA environmentalism and contentious political action by investigating Vietnam and the Philippines. A comparative study was conducted on these two cases, which employed qualitative content analysis on texts like news articles to study responses to environmentalism. Findings reveal that both countries display a variety of responses, but are most inclined to repress. However, they differ considerably in how they approach each response type in terms of methods, actors involved, and consistency. It is proposed that each country’s distinct response pattern is linked to its respective regime type, as suggested by existing literature on contentious political action. Beyond the popular notion that non-democracies are more likely to repress contentious claim-making, this study illustrates how hybrid regimes can be more covert and lethal in their repression than other regimes. From these findings, this paper stresses the importance of local socio-political contexts for those engaged in environmental protection and advocacy. Additionally, this investigation hopes to spur similar research on other SEA countries and expand the political science literature on this region.Show less
Bachelor thesis | South and Southeast Asian Studies (BA)
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The high number of extrajudicial killings during the regime of President Rodrigo Duterte raises the question of how populism is causing democratic regression in the Philippines.
The main intention of this thesis is to provide an assessment of the extent to which the European Union (EU) has been able to diffuse its norms within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ...Show moreThe main intention of this thesis is to provide an assessment of the extent to which the European Union (EU) has been able to diffuse its norms within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) through theories of norm diffusion – with particular regard to Acharya’s ‘localization’ and Manner’s ‘Normative Power Europe’. Addedly, the research is mainly centered on the case studies of Myanmar and the Philippines, owing to their relevance to contemporary EU-ASEAN relations and current events. The case studies of are still an ongoing phenomenon and are thus relevant to examining the standing of current EU-ASEAN relations.Show less
