{"title":"In Memoriam Lieutenant Colonel Professor Ahmad Ghazali Abu Hassan (1956-2022)","authors":"Teh Yik Koon, Aruna Dewi Gopinath, Ariffin Omar","doi":"10.17576/sinergi.si1.2023.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17576/sinergi.si1.2023.08","url":null,"abstract":"In this obituary note, we dedicate our thoughts to the late Lieutenant Colonel Professor Ahmad Ghazali Abu Hassan (1956-2022), who recently passed away in December 2022. His demise in December 2022 is a significant loss to the nation and academia, especially in Defence and Strategic Studies. To many of us who believed in him, we know he cared for all, irrespective of race, creed or religion. Every footprint he has left behind becomes an imprint in our lives. His memory will live on in the hearts and minds of his friends, colleagues, students and others he had inspired. May his soul rest in peace.","PeriodicalId":247188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Strategic Studies & International Affairs","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124828876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Malaysia dalam Arus Feminisme Global: Pembangunan Wanita dan Hubungan Antarabangsa Malaysia","authors":"Muhammad Rahimi Hassan, Rashila Ramli","doi":"10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.06","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.06","url":null,"abstract":"Feminism is a discourse and movement that aims to change the gender imbalance in a patriarchal society. Feminism has proliferated, covering four mainstreams and evolving 'from the bottom up'. The dynamics, focus, and struggle that start from the community up to the international level show the inclusive involvement of state and non-state actors. Using Feminism approaches in Politics and International Relations, this paper explains how the dynamics of women's development in Malaysia have become part of contemporary global feminism. When the UN celebrated International Women's Day in 1975, Malaysia played an active international role in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). It established a local agency, the National Advisory Council on the Integration of Women in Development (NACIWID). The paper is divided into three major parts. First, interactions between feminism and International Relations will be explored. Second, because of gendering politics, the framework of women in development (WID), women and development (WAD), as well as gender and development (GAD) have become a benchmark for explaining women's emancipation in policy formulation. Finally, the study also applies the model in Malaysia. Arguably Malaysia's earliest roles and international activism explain the inclusion of Malaysia's lessons in transnational feminism and the country's contribution to women's development despite the prevalent patriarchal attributes.","PeriodicalId":247188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Strategic Studies & International Affairs","volume":"102 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132337506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Muhammad Farid Abd Rahman, A. J. Owojori, Faridah Jaafar
{"title":"Failed Peace in South Sudan? Exploring Unarmed Civilians and Local Peacekeepers through the Work of Nonviolent Peaceforce","authors":"Muhammad Farid Abd Rahman, A. J. Owojori, Faridah Jaafar","doi":"10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.05","url":null,"abstract":"Since the 2013 outbreak of civil war in South Sudan, the conflict has produced orgies of casualties and displacement of millions necessitating a series of mandates of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Yet, humanitarian crises and civilian protection challenges have not been reversed. To address these deficiencies, this article examined methods of the unarmed civilian peacekeeping as local peace formation and infrastructure involving the non-use of weapons for civilian protection as practiced by the Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP). Adopting ethnographic strands of Critical Peace Studies and utilisation of participant observations in humanitarian accounts with the NP between 2015 and 2019, our in-depth qualitative fieldwork indicates a potentially effective approach to unarmed civilian protection in the country. Our findings illuminate the limited viability of the UN civilian appointed personnel, while making an argument for the compelling efficacy of unarmed civilian peacekeepers in which those affected by the conflict are themselves empowered in their physical protection, the study further recommends the integration of the NP strategies into the current state of peace operation disarray so the current self-fulfilling prophecy of failed peace in South Sudan can be overturned.","PeriodicalId":247188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Strategic Studies & International Affairs","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126157531","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"If there is a Declaration of War, We Welcome the War\": Undi-18, TikTok Election and Normalisation of Violence","authors":"Siti Zuliha, Muhamad Luqman Hakim Abdul Hani","doi":"10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.08","url":null,"abstract":"Malaysia's democracy has come under attack due to the radicalisation of young and first-time voters on social media platforms. The widespread usage of TikTok as a primary campaign battleground by the political parties during the 15th General Election (GE-15) marks the anomaly pattern of first-time youth voters. Moreover, having social media influencers courting youth voters as a pawn in the electoral war is considered an accentuation of provocation of hate speech, endangering the prospect of moderate democracy in Malaysia. This commentary studies such anomalies by interviewing youth from varying socio-economic standing and educational backgrounds across Malaysia. Our research note highlights two crucial areas of unexplored terrain for future research. The first is the immediate need to invest in an emancipatory discourse of civic and political education and unabated expansions of democratic space and rights. Secondly, alarming concerns of electoral terrorism and hate speech via social media unravelled the under-research angles or assumed organic political divisions between analogue generations of corrupted warlords versus digital politics of technocratic youth savvy. Inadvertently, our observation of the 15th GE has discerned an increasing political worrisome pattern of widespread manipulative tendency by politicians, including using Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) technology to predict the voting pattern and understand the population sentiment through social media. We also concluded that tactics employed by the cyber troopers of political parties have significantly manipulated and poisoned the neutrality and perspectives of first-time youth voters.","PeriodicalId":247188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Strategic Studies & International Affairs","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134357007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"40 Years of Malaysia's Look East Policy and Relocation of Indonesia's Capital: Serumpun Solution in Sarawak-West Kalimantan Cross-Border Halal Hub","authors":"M. Yazid","doi":"10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.12","url":null,"abstract":"The relocation of Indonesia's new capital to Kota Nusantara (East Kalimantan) is a game changer. It creates a spill-over of the prosper thy neighbour policy upon the existing West Kalimantan-Malaysia Sarawak border for the first Japanese Big Eon in Kuching (Malaysia's Sarawak) and potential Halal Wagyu beef market in Pontianak (Indonesia's West Kalimantan). Both countries should seize this golden opportunity to revisit their respective Look East Policy (LEP) with Japan and integrate Japan's advantages in quality assurance to overcome different regulatory Halal practices. After all, sustaining the Halal economy is no longer determined by the growing Muslim population alone but a shared knowledge and mutual policy lessons on Halal regulations and quality assurance. While both countries are essential players in the global halal hub and shared trade borders, there needs to be more harmonisation between Kalimantan-Sarawak's cross-border halal framework. With the Indonesian decision to relocate to a new capital, Kota Nusantara (located in East Kalimantan), there is a severe immediate need to bring LEP's benefits and profile the existing business ecosystem in Kuching (the capital of Sarawak) and Pontianak (capital of West Kalimantan).","PeriodicalId":247188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Strategic Studies & International Affairs","volume":"1972 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130012977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction: When Security Meet Politics of Conflict, Women, Development and Peace, Get Ready For A Challenging Year","authors":"Mumin Chen, Z. Othman, Bakri Mat","doi":"10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.01","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.01","url":null,"abstract":"This editorial note serves as an introductory explanation as we approach the dawn of 2023. The hardship of a total lockdown changes how we look at space and time or spatiotemporal beyond ordinary linearity of progress and regress. Nevertheless, how do we use space and time to make sense of the most significant concerns of threats to our security? How do we refine constructive ideas about safety and inspire others to think beyond the rigidity of rational choice and nearly no freedom to choose? Time and space transform our perceived secured reality and insinuate threat discursively, whether yesterday or today, international or local. In our nested security discourse, we challenge the archaic and unstable binary boundaries between international and internal delineation of security threats and peace concerns. Altogether, temporal constraints and limited space disperse our cognitive inability to operate within the tesseract of multiple data analytics, eternal realities, and organic, meaningful solutions to give hope to humanity and freedom to coexist mutually. Underpinned by multidimensions and nested security discourse, we present our readers with our final thoughts in selecting six research articles, three research notes, two commentaries, and one book review.","PeriodicalId":247188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Strategic Studies & International Affairs","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133464711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mengenderkan Penglibatan Indonesia dalam Misi Pengaman Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu","authors":"Machya Astuti Dewi","doi":"10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.11","url":null,"abstract":"Pengajian Gender dan Keamanan semakin mendapat perhatian dalam disiplin Hubungan Antarabangsa. Perkembangan mutakhir ini semakin menuntut pemahaman gender yang baik; secara khusus dalam konteks sumbangan kepada keamanan dunia melalui penglibatan dan aktivisme wanita dalam misi penjagaan keamanan antarabangsa. Tentera wanita Indonesia telah menyumbang terhadap misi menjaga perdamaian di negara-negara yang terkena dampak konflik seperti dalam misi UNIFIL di Lebanon. Dengan memberi tumpuan kepada isu penghantaran tentera wanita Indonesia dalam Misi Penjagaan Keamanan PBB, makalah ini membincangkan konsep gender dan peranan dalam misi keamanan global, dengan tumpuan khusus kepada keterlibatan wanita Indonesia dalam pasukan pengaman PBB. Kaedah penyelidikan kualitatif telah digunakan dalam kajian ini dengan memanfaatkan kedua-dua sumber primer dan sekunder dalam bentuk laporan rasmi, serta artikel dari buku, majalah dalam bentuk bercetak, dan juga yang diperolehi dari sumber online yang berautoriti. Hasil penelitian membuktikan bahawa melalui penglibatan wanita Indonesia dalam Misi Menjaga Keamanan PBB, Indonesia bukanlah aktor negara tanpa gender. Secara tidak langsung, patriarkalisme yang menjadi ciri negara yang melebihkan lelaki (maskulin) sedang mengalami transformasi dengan penglibatan wanita dalam sektor keselamatan yang kritikal ini. Dalam erti kata lain, posisi wanita semakin mendapat pengiktirafan. Kedua, peranan yang dilakukan oleh tentera dan polis wanita Indonesia dalam Misi penjagaan Keamanan PBB adalah refleksi aktiviti politik tingkat tinggi (high politics). Namun, uniknya melalui peranan wanita khususnya dalam membantu agenda pemulihan pasca konflik, agenda keamanan antarabangsa juga boleh diselesaikan melalui aktiviti yang dikaitkan sebagai low politics","PeriodicalId":247188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Strategic Studies & International Affairs","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129828270","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pelosi's Intoxication of Taiwan and Democrat's Flopped Performance in the US' Midterm Election","authors":"Namrata Hasija","doi":"10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.09","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.09","url":null,"abstract":"Although traditionally, flopped performance of the Democrats in the US mid-term elections and Pelosi's failure to retain the majority of the house is expected, many analysts do not rule out the possibility of an increased significant connection between the development between the US election and events in the international politics. Therefore, it is highly likely for Taiwan to consider foreign policy options without US security protection in the face of China's threat under President Xi Jinping's third term is inevitable. This brief commentary provides views to answer some of the following questions; What is the most important international security lesson since the incident of Nancy Pelosi's visit as the former Leader of the United States (US) Congress to Taiwan last August 2022? How does the increasing tension in relations between Beijing and Washington foreshadow Taiwan's security future as it becomes increasingly dark and uncertain from the possible invasion of Mainland China?","PeriodicalId":247188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Strategic Studies & International Affairs","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128388454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Buku Review: Iranian Nuclear Issue and United States' Interest, By Riki Rahman and Zarina Othman, Bangi, UKM Press, 2020, 216 pp, ISBN: 9789674128395","authors":"Aini Fatihah Roslam, Hoo Chiew-Ping","doi":"10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.13","url":null,"abstract":"The abstract is not available for a book review article. This is a book review article in Bahasa Malaysia. To access it, please order the printed version or browse the electronic version of this article.","PeriodicalId":247188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Strategic Studies & International Affairs","volume":"191 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114650592","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Haron, Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, M. D. Azman, Salina Zainol, Hifzhan Hafiy Mohd Shafik
{"title":"Remembering Hamidin Abdul Hamid: His Contribution to Africa-Malaysia Relations and the Development of African Studies in Malaysia","authors":"M. Haron, Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, M. D. Azman, Salina Zainol, Hifzhan Hafiy Mohd Shafik","doi":"10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17576/sinergi.0202.2022.10","url":null,"abstract":"In this obituary and research note, we dedicate our prayers and peaceful thoughts to the late Associate Professor Dr Hamidin Abdul Hamid (1970-2022), who recently passed away in the late afternoon of September 19, 2022. Malaysians knew him through his national television appearance, famous witty commentaries on national electoral issues, past adjuncts and visiting posts, and consultations. He will always be remembered for his contributions and legacy in advancing African Studies in Malaysia. To colleagues, former students, supervisees, and known associates and academic networks within and outside the circle of History, African Studies, Leadership, and Malaysian elections, his presence is always felt. We are always honoured to know his excellent works in many impactful ways. As part of this attribute to the late Dr Hamidin, the rest of this research note provides updates on current trends in Malaysia-Africa relations and African Studies at Universiti Malaya and in Malaysia generally. We also would like to express our sincere gratitude to SINERGI's Editor-in-Chief and the rest of her editorial team, UKM Press, and SPHEA, UKM, for allowing us to share our views on research in Africa-Malaysia relations.","PeriodicalId":247188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Strategic Studies & International Affairs","volume":"170 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133299333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}