EDITORIAL
Enhancing Global IR Knowledge Production in Southeast Asia Through Quality Publications Moch Faisal Karim.
Tirta Nugraha Mursitama.
Lili Yulyadi Arnakim International Relations Department.
Faculty of Humanities.
Bina Nusantara University.
Jakarta.
Indonesia, 11480.
mkarim@binus.
edu, tmursitama@binus.
edu, lili.
yulyadi@binus.
How to Cite: Karim.
Mursitama.
, & Arnakim.
& .
Enhancing global IR knowledge production in Southeast Asia through quality publications.
Journal of ASEAN Studies, 10.
, https://doi.
org/10.
21512/jas.
Keywords: knowledge production.
Global IR.
Southeast Asia, publication Introduction Since the call for Non-Western International Relations (IR) Theory (Acharya & Buzan, 2.
, there has been a growing movement within the IR discipline to engage more non-western experiences to enhance debate within IR literature.
This results in the advancement of Global IR aimed to transform IR into a genuinely global discipline engaging ideas, approaches, and experiences of both Western and non-Western societies (Hurrell, 2016.
Jones, 2.
This movement is not only trying to voice non-western ideas but also breaking the hegemony of euro-centrism in analyzing global issues.
However, almost a decade into the movement, such a premise to enhance the Global IR movement might still be limited.
Wicaksana and Santoso .
show how Indonesian IR is primarily dominated by Western scholarship, especially constructivism and realism.
Moreover.
Indonesian IR Scholars tend to focus on empirically based and policy-oriented than conceptual ones.
This resulted in the lack of Indonesian contributions towards debate in IR literature.
Not to mention that due to the neo-liberalization of education.
IR courses tend to be designed to meet the demands of the job market rather than to address the debates in the In this editorial, we would like to examine further the knowledge production in International Relations as a field of study in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia.
As the only IR Journal based in Indonesia, we are interested in being part of the Global IR movement.
Understanding the current state of the field in our region would allow us to focus our attention on how to energize the field in this region.
To do so, a bibliometric analysis of the state of IR is conducted as a field of study.
ASEAN in IR Knowledge Production: A bibliometric analysis Bibliometric analysis is conducted to understand the position of ASEAN in the field of IR.
utilize Scopus as our database, given its broad collections of scholarly publications.
We need to reiterate, however, that this database is highly skewed toward English publications and might be biased toward English-speaking countries.
However.
Scopus has been used by many institutions both in the Global North and South as an instrument for evaluating research Using keywords relevant to the study of International Relations in general, we gather around 61.
687 articles from 2000 (See Table .
Table 1 Keywords for IR and IPE Corpus Types Keywords Relevant keywords for IR Corpus (TITLE-ABS-KEY ( {International Relation.
) OR TITLEABS-KEY ( .
oreign polic.
) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( .
lobal governanc.
) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( .
nternational securit.
) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( .
iddle powe.
) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( .
ower transitio.
) OR TITLE-ABSKEY ( .
ross-border regionalis.
) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( .
nternational political econom.
) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( .
lobal political econom.
) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( .
nternational institutio.
) ) Relevant keywords for IPE Corpus (TITLE-ABS-KEY ( .
nternational political econom.
) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( .
olitical econom.
) AND TITLE-ABSKEY ( international ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( global ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( transnational ) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ( globalization ) ) These lists can be a corpus for knowledge production in International Relations.
As expected, the top four countries publishing about International Relations are all Anglo-Saxon countries such as the US.
UK.
Canada, and Australia, followed by the Russian Federation.
Germany, and China, respectively.
These Anglo-Saxon countries dominate IR studies with 31,436 or more than 50%.
The US alone published around 25% of IR scholarships.
Furthermore, the top twenty most productive countries in IR knowledge production are dominated by Western countries, with more than 70% of publications published in these Non-western countries such as Russia.
China.
India.
Japan.
Brazil, and Turkey account for only 14% of IR publications.
This suggests that the US and Western countries dominate IR scholarship (See Table .
Table 2 IR Publication by Country from 2000-2022 Number of United States United Kingdom Canada Australia Russian Federation Germany China Netherland Italy France Turkey India Sweden Brazil Japan Spain Belgium Switzerland Norway Denmark Source: Scopus database Country Where is the position of Southeast Asia in general and Indonesia in particular in regard to this knowledge production? All Southeast Asian countries combined have only produced 2% of IR scholarships since 2000.
Singapore is ranked number 1 as a country that has made IR scholarship in ASEAN with 635 publications.
Despite being the largest country in ASEAN and a supposedly important player.
Indonesia has produced only 240 publications since 2000 and placed second, followed by Malaysia and Thailand in third and fourth place with 217 and 105 publications, respectively.
Arguably.
Singapore has become a hub in knowledge production in IR.
SingaporeAos two leading institutions.
Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore, arguably have become hub for IR knowledge production in ASEAN, publishing 426 and 352 publications, respectively, higher than all Indonesian academic institutionsAo productivity combined (See Table .
Singapore is also superior in terms of the quality of the Most of the publications are published in highly-ranked journals.
Other than Singapore.
Indonesia and Malaysia followed.
There are six Indonesian institutions, six Malaysian institutions, two Philippines institutions, two Thai institutions, and one Vietnam institution in the top twenty most productive institutions in IR knowledge production (See Table .
Table 3 IR Publications in Southeast Asia from 2000-2022 Country World Ranking Singapore Indonesia Malaysia Thailand Philippines Vietnam Cambodia Brunei Laos Myanmar Source: Scopus database Number of Publications Table 4 Publications by University in Southeast Asia from 2000-2022 Number of Publication Nanyang Technological University National University of Singapore Universiti Malaya De La Salle University Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Thammasat University Singapore Management University Bina Nusantara University Universitas Indonesia University of the Philippines Diliman Universiti Sains Malaysia Chulalongkorn University Universitas Airlangga Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam International Islamic University Malaysia Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta Universitas Diponegoro Universitas Padjadjaran Universitas Putra Malaysia Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin Universiti Utara Malaysia Source: Scopus database Institutions Country Singapore Singapore Malaysia Philippines Malaysia Thailand Singapore Indonesia Indonesia Philippines Malaysia Thailand Indonesia Vietnam Malaysia Indonesia Indonesia Indonesia Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia For Indonesia, knowledge production is highly diversified.
Bina Nusantara University has become the most productive in terms of IR knowledge production with 29 publications .
%), followed by Universitas Indonesia with 27 .
%).
Universitas Airlangga with 19 publications .
,8%), and Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta with 16 publications .
,6%).
Unlike Indonesia.
Philippines IR knowledge production is primarily dominated by two universities.
De La Salle University and the University of the Philippines Diliman, representing almost 70% of the total publications (See Table .
Table 5 Publications by Universities in Indonesia from 2000-2022
Institutions Bina Nusantara University Universitas Indonesia
Universitas Airlangga
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
Universitas Diponegoro
Universitas Padjajaran Hasanuddin University Universitas Gajah Mada
LIPI
Centre for Strategic and International Studies Source: Scopus Database Number of Publication The fate of the IR subfield.
Indonesian knowledge production in International Political Economy, an IR subfield is even worse.
From 12.
470 documents with relevant IPE keywords.
Indonesian-based scholars only produced 51 publications.
Only one article published by Indonesian-based scholars was published in Review of International Political Economy, the most prominent journal in the field of International Political Economy.
Overall.
Southeast Asian-based scholars produce only 308 journal publications or 2,25%.
Singaporean-based institutions dominate knowledge production with 141 publications, or more than 45% of all publications from Southeast Asian institutions.
The United States still dominates most knowledge production in the field of International Political Economy with 3.
660 publications, the United Kingdom with 2.
879 publications.
Canada with 949 publications.
Australia with 817 publications, and Germany with 621 publications.
In Southeast Asia.
Singapore ranked first with 141 publications followed by Indonesia in second place with 51 publication.
Malaysia with 48 publications.
Thailand with 35 publications, and the Philippines with 22 publications (See Table .
The question, then, is where Indonesian IR academic scholars publish.
Building upon available data of Indonesian IR scholars in the Scopus database, we can gather around 149 Indonesian IR scholars.
These 149 scholars have generated 697 publications or 4,6 publications on average per scholar.
However, the prevalence of Indonesian IR scholars published in proceedings is higher than average.
For instance, there were only 792 publications in proceeding out of 61.
687 publications in IR or about 1,2%.
In the case of Indonesia, there are 118 publications in proceedings or almost 17% of all total publications by Indonesian scholars.
Publishing in proceedings indicates a low-quality paper, given the nature of proceeding, that has weak or no peer review (See Table .
Table 6 IPE Publication by Country from 2000-2022 Country World Ranking United States United Kingdom Canada Australia Germany Netherland Italy South Africa China France Singapore Indonesia Malaysia Thailand Philippines Source: Scopus Database Number of Publications 3,660 2,879 Table 7 Top ten journal outlets by Indonesia-based IR Scholars Name IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science Review of International Geographical Education Online International Journal of Innovation Creativity and Change Central European Journal of International and Security Studies Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control Systems Type Proceeding/ Discontinued Journal/ Discontinued Journal/ Discontinued Journal Focus Non-IR Journal Number Non-IR Journal Non-IR Journal IR Journal Journal/ Discontinued Journal Non-IR Journal Non-IR Journal Journal/ Discontinued Revista Unisci Journal Journal Of Physics Conference Series Proceeding International Journal of Scientific and Journal/ Technology Research Discontinued Source: Scopus Database Non-IR Journal IR Journal Non-IR Journal Non-IR Journal International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy International Journal of Supply Chain Management Furthermore.
Indonesian IR scholars do not publish in IR or Political Science specific journals.
The top ten outlets where Indonesian IR scholars publish were primarily dominated by science and management-related journals.
This indicates that Indonesian IR scholars tend to publish in predatory journals or low-rank journals even though it is not part of the scholarly This also shows the academic environment in Indonesia seems to prioritize quantity and fast publication where proceedings can cater for such needs.
As a comparison, around 59 academics based in Singapore has generated about 977 publications or 16 publications on average per person.
Singapore academics published only seven conference proceedings.
Most of the academics in Singapore published in reputable IR journals focusing on the Asia Pacific (See Table .
Indeed the low-quality publication by Indonesian scholars by no means indicates the lower quality of Indonesian scholars.
Many variables explain the seemingly low-quality publications by Indonesian scholars.
Many IR academics in Indonesia or some in Southeast Asia are busy and occupied with administrative or structural activities (Rakhmani, 2.
This is considering the condition of the higher education environment in Indonesia, which focuses on bureaucratic jobs.
Second, the process of neoliberalization of education keeps lecturers busy in the teaching process with a large number of classes and a lot of workloads so that lecturers do not have time to do research.
This, of course, really depends on each institutionAos policy (Rosser, 2.
Third, given the unique position of academics in Indonesia, many lecturers enjoy the role of activists or observers.
The phenomenon of academic pragmatism, where lecturers interact more often with the public, makes publication activities irrelevant to some academics.
Table 8 Top Ten Journal Outlets by Singapore-Based IR Scholars Name Pacific Review Contemporary Southeast Asia Asian Survey Intellectual Discourse Asia Policy Asian Security Review of International Studies Asian Journal of Political Science Australian Journal of International Affairs Asian Journal of Comparative Politics Cambridge Review of International Affairs European Journal of International Relations International Affairs Journal of Strategic Studies Source: Scopus Database Number of Publication Our bibliometric analysis shows that the West primarily dominates International Relations knowledge production.
In the case of Southeast Asia, the hub for knowledge production is Singapore.
Specifically for Indonesia, the picture is even grimmer when we look at the quality of publications by Indonesian IR scholars.
Not only is there a gender gap in terms of publication by Indonesian IR scholars (Prihatini & Prajuli, 2.
, but there is a quality gap in It is then challenging to contribute for Indonesian IR to have a distinct view that allows them to contribute toward Global IR.
There is a need for further enhancement of the Indonesian IR epistemic community.
Enhancing IR in Southeast Asia This current JAS issue aims to address such limitations in enhancing how Indonesian scholars, in particular, and Southeast Asian scholars, in general, can contribute towards the Global IR.
This edition is special because it marks the tenth anniversary of the Journal of ASEAN Studies.
Seven articles in this issue, in some ways, address the concern on how Southeast Asian-based scholars can contribute to the IR debate.
To do so, we examine the trajectories and trends of research that engage Southeast Asia as empirical grounds.
The first article by Andrew Rosser, titled AuBeyond the Crisis: Re-energizing Southeast Asian StudiesAy, discusses the decline of Southeast Asia as area studies.
Rosser .
suggests several strategies to enhance Southeast Asian studies to be more relevant to debates in the This is important because JAS, although it claims to be an IR journal, focuses on Southeast Asia and ASEAN as its empirical issues.
We publish articles that engage in the issue of transnational environmental governance in Southeast Asia (Varkkey, 2.
, domestic issues of particular ASEAN member countries such as the president public speech (Tyson & Apresian, 2.
, to comparative analysis of two ASEAN member states focusing on how states policing cyberspace (Talamayan, 2.
However, we expect that such area studies could contribute to the particular debate.
We hope JAS could be a platform for linking area studies with debates in disciplines.
The second article written by I Gede Wahyu Wicaksana and Moch Faisal Karim, titled AuApproaches to IndonesiaAos Foreign Policy: Area Studies.
FPA Theory, and Global IRAy, examines the evolution of IndonesiaAos foreign policy studies, highlighting the major theoretical and methodological trends that have shaped their current form.
Wicaksana and Karim .
show that Indonesian scholars focusing on foreign policy analysis (FPA) has engaged in more diverse theory-driven inquiries.
Many recent studies on IndonesiaAos foreign policy engage in role theory (Karim, 2.
and family state (Wicaksana, 2.
This could be an important trend for Indonesia to contribute to the Global IR, specifically in the sub-field of FPA.
JAS has also published a variety study on IndonesiaAos foreign policy, especially on IndonesiaAos international leadership (Jemadu & Lantang, 2.
IndonesiaAos foreign policy toward ASEAN, and the interaction between domestic politics and IndonesiaAos foreign policy toward South Pacific (Lantang & Tambunan, 2.
We hope that JAS could produce more theory-driven FPA focusing on Indonesia and comparative studies of ASEAN member states.
The third and fourth articles focus on Southeast AsiaAos International Political Economy (IPE) Miranda Tahalele et al.
, in their article titled AuThe Trajectory and Trend of International Political Economy in Southeast Asia AuthorsAy, explores the studies of Southeast AsiaAos political economy that have stimulated the debate over the past years and its future They show how issues on climate change and the environment, the importance of subregional in ASEAN integration, and digitalization and technological advancement could be a trend that emerged within the policy discussion and academic forums.
Hence, we encourage Southeast Asian-based scholars to engage in these issues to contribute to conceptual development that enriches IPE in Southeast Asia.
The fourth article is by Kyunghoon Kim, titled AuKey Features of IndonesiaAos State Capitalism Under JokowiAy.
In this article.
Kim .
analyses how state capitalism has expanded rapidly since President Joko Widodo came into power in 2014.
He shows, however, state capitalismAos resurgence has not translated into the government decidedly turning its back on the market.
This type of study is important for the growing study of IPE in Southeast Asia, given the distinct nature of state-market relations that might shed light on general debates in IPE.
The fifth and sixth articles focus on trends in contemporary media issues of Southeast Asia, especially the debate regarding democratization and the rise of authoritarianism.
The article by Athiqah Nur Alami et al.
examines how the digital sphere may or may not support inclusive and deliberative democracy in the region.
They find that digital space has created different outcomes for democratization in Southeast Asia.
Digital space can be instrumental in harassing dissent or jailing opposition members in countries like the Philippines and Vietnam.
At the same time, using technology offers an opportunity that has prospects for nurturing deliberative and more inclusive democracy in Indonesia and Malaysia.
In their article titled AuJournalism in the Age of Digital Autocracy: A Comparative ASEAN PerspectiveAy.
Aim Sinpeng and Youngjoon Koh .
survey how digital news organizations survive and thrive in this increasingly repressive environment where governments are seeking innovative ways to monitor, surveil, censor and persecute government critics, activists and journalists.
They find that digital authoritarianism does not exert downward pressure on critical journalism.
Last but not least, our seventh article is written by Tangguh Chairil et al.
, titled AuRoad to ASEAN Political-Security Community Vision 2025: Understanding Convergence and Divergence in ASEAN Voting Behaviors in the UNGAAy.
Chairil et al.
examine ASEAN cohesion and how it aligns with the institutionAos community-building project by looking at the pattern of divergence and convergence in ASEAN voting behaviour across security issues discussed in the UN General Assembly.
They find that ASEAN member statesAo voting highly converges on colonialism, the law of the sea, the Mediterranean region, military expenditures, outer space, peace, and transnational crimes.
Editorial Team.
Moch Faisal Karim
Tirta Nugraha Mursitama
Lili Yulyadi Arnakim
References