Dr. Aileen S.P. Baviera was Professor and former Dean of the University of the Philippines Asian Centre. She passed away on 21 March 2020. Professor Baviera was a founding member of GRADNAS, and as one of our Senior Scholars, showed her warm support for our activities and for the Emerging Scholars Network in many ways. In memory of our dear friend and colleague, GRADNAS established the Aileen San Pablo Baviera Prize in 2021, to recognize impactful academic publications on Southeast Asia-China international relations.

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We are delighted to announce that the 2024 Aileen Baviera Prize has been awarded to Mr. Edcel John A. Ibarra (University of the Philippines Diliman), for his article, 'Issue-Based Cooperation on Conflict Resolution in the South China Sea: Exploring Roles for ASEAN Beyond the Code of Conduct,' Journal of Territorial and Maritime Studies 9:1 (2022), pp. 97–115.
 

The Committee was impressed with this excellent publication, which contributes to the field of Southeast Asia-China international relations. The parsimonious framework supports a clear and systematic analysis of the South China Sea conflict, breaking up the conflict into different types of issues that might be addressed using different modes and with different aims in mind. The approach offers ways of cutting through some of the stalemates around this conflict, is empirically backed, and sheds new light on a long-standing policy problem. This article resonates with the scholarship advocated by Aileen Baviera, in whose name this prize is offered.

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The 2024 Prize considered nominations for articles published in 2022 and 2023. The committee consisted of Helen Nesadurai, Evelyn Goh, and Alvin Camba.

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MORE ABOUT THE PRIZE

Aileen S. P. Baviera was a leading Southeast Asian scholar, an expert on Philippine foreign policy and a China specialist, whose research focused on China’s international and security relations, especially in Southeast Asia. She traversed the academic and policy worlds with equal ease. Her work was marked by accuracy and integrity, and she brought grace, humility and kindness to all her engagements with others. In 2016, Professor Baviera noted that, in Southeast Asian scholarship, “it is important to put more China content across different fields so that a broad range of stakeholders will come to appreciate the different aspects of China”, reminding us that “[t]he goal is to publish more original research and come up with research-based analyses and recommendations.”

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For more information about Professor Aileen San Pablo Baviera’s work and legacy which this prize commemorates, see this short article in the Chinese Studies Journal vol. 15.

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Congratulations to the winner of the inaugural 2022 Prize, Dr. Alvin Camba (University of Denver), for his article "How Chinese firms approach investment risk: strong leaders, cancellation, and pushback," Review of International Political Economy (2021), DOI:10.1080/09692290.2021.1947345 

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The Committee commended this article, which will make an important contribution to the field of Southeast Asia-China international relations. It noted the article's engagement with the sociological/cultural turns in International Relations, important in the context of International Political Economy. It also appreciated that the article’s very rich empirical content aligns well with Professor Aileen Baviera’s scholarly philosophy regarding the nexus between theory and empirical work.