Prerequisites and Perceived Information System Qualities Model for Mobile Banking Adoption Among the Customers of Private Commercial Banks in Myanmar

The research attempts to conjecture the prerequisites of perceived qualities of information system (IS) such as mobile banking (MB). The quantitative research was conducted and a total of 577 MB users of private commercial banks in Myanmar participated in the research. The results of the hypotheses were formulated by using partly exploratory factor analysis (EFA), partly confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques. The findings expose that device quality is an independent factor, and an antecedent of user interface design quality and system quality. The research also discloses that user interface design quality is a prerequisite of system quality and information quality. In the research, system quality and information quality are key factors affecting customers’ intention to adopt MB. Further, the results confirm that system quality has a statistically significant effect on information quality. However, the effect of device quality on information quality is insignificant. It is expected that the research gives valuable insights for not only bank managers but also software engineers who are going to develop MB systems.

Maritime security cooperation within the ASEAN institutional framework: a gradual shift towards practical cooperation

How does ASEAN fare in addressing maritime security problems? This paper examines the shifting character of maritime security cooperation in Southeast Asia. In doing so, this paper looks at the outcomes of three maritime security-oriented fora that exist within the ASEAN regional framework: the ASEAN Regional Forum, the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting, and the ASEAN Maritime Forum. By compiling and analysing data on the forms and frequency of existing cooperative activities from 2003 gathered from publicly available sources, this paper finds that maritime security cooperation among ASEAN members continue to be largely dialogue-based, with few instances of practical cooperation. By comparing the three fora, this paper argues that the organisational design of these forums tends to affect the forms of cooperation. This paper concludes that despite ASEAN showing progress in adopting practical security cooperation, there remain hurdles in achieving regional maritime security.

Socioeconomic Determinants of Infant Mortality Rate in Asean: A Panel Data Analysis

The infant mortality rate indicates the health status of a country. Previous studies have proven that socioeconomic factors have a significant influence on infant mortality rates in both developed and developing countries. Further studies on infant mortality rates are useful for public service strategic policy in the health sector. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the socioeconomic factors influencing infant mortality rates in ASEAN based on panel data estimates for 2000-2017. The dependent variable for this study was infant mortality rate, while the independent variables were health expenditure, female labor force, maternal fertility rate, and GDP per capita. The authors concluded that the main cause of infant mortality in ASEAN is care during delivery. Other influencing factors include family health status, maternal education level, and socio-economic inequality. This study found that the size of the female workforce has a strong influence on increasing the infant mortality rate in ASEAN. The fertility rate also had a strong influence on increasing infant mortality rate in ASEAN, while GDP per capita had a negative influence on infant mortality rate. Health expenditure is proven to have no effect on the increase of infant mortality rates in ASEAN.

Of Benevolence and Unity: Unpacking China's Policy Discourses Toward Southeast Asia

While much attention has been directed on the security and economic implications of China’s rise in the region, research on the normative implications of China’s persistent attempt at projecting a positive major power identity continue to be lacking. This paper seeks to contribute to this growing literature, as it applies Social Identity Theory (SIT) in analyzing China’s discourses toward Southeast Asia from Mao to Xi. More specifically, it unpacks social identity phenomena within discourses reflected in official documents by using predicate analysis. Insights from the findings of this paper underscore China’s growing role as a normative power driven by a longstanding objective to be perceived positively and distinctively. Likewise, this paper also finds that there is a continuity with respect to China’s foreign policy discourse of depicting Sino-Southeast Asia relations as unique and united. There are also indications that Southeast Asia has consistently been presented as benefiting from its relations with China, thereby treating it as a prototype of what a Sino-centric order might offer for the rest of the world. Ultimately, China’s discourses of itself, Southeast Asia, and Sino-Southeast Asia relations point to major power aspirations of constructing a united in-group and a positive identity.

Western Centric Research Methods?

Data curated by humans reflects the biases and imperfections of humans (2017; 2016). For example, in autonomous weapons systems, the initial data entered produces algorithms from which weapons systems learn, and, as a result, the systems mirror and amplify existing biases in the data sets (O’Neil, 2017). In political science and international relations, biases are also both inherent and amplified through the research approaches and methods adopted. They, too, are frequently hidden. A stark example of this is in the debate between area and disciplinary studies. Although there is a growing recognition that area studies can make valuable contributions to the study of international relations and that there is a need to ‘decolonise’ the discipline (Suzuki, 2021), the debate so far has not recognized the gulf of differences in research methods between these two approaches. This article argues that in the study of international relations and particularly regarding institutions, area studies approaches should be more frequently adopted. The limited use of these approaches not only hampers new research but also hides a colonial hangover.

Assessment of Business Environment of Women Involved in Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in The Philippines: A Comparative Study with Select ASEAN Countries

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in 2017 states that women are deemed important part of a trade. They take part in a wide range of activities in the industry - produce products, commerce of goods across borders, run and own trading firms, and make up a large part of the workforce in export-oriented businesses. Nevertheless, women's potential and skills in trade is still too often held back by the many constraints. Hence, the research endeavours to describe the current demographics, roles, and experiences of women involved in MSMEs, provide information on the current policies programs and services and how these are comparable and contrasting, not to mention recommend measures to address the impeding factors in the Philippines to be compared with Singapore and Myanmar using available secondary information. Through surveys and purposive sampling, the research results show that women’s participation in economic activity, in particular in MSMEs, is primarily affected by conditions that catalyze engagements.

Xi Jinping, “China Dream”, and Chinese Military Diplomacy to ASEAN

The rise of Xi Jinping has brought together the idea of the ‘China Dream’ as a great revival of China. Since the dream referred to the nationalism spirit of a ‘century of humiliation,’ it has made national security issues as the core of China’s diplomacy. While the national security-related foreign policy has enhanced the military's role in China’s foreign policy-making, it brings consequences for China’s tougher stance in protecting China’s national security. However, Xi Jinping’s notion of using military diplomacy has started uneasy relationships between China and some ASEAN countries resulting in ‘ongoing negotiation without progress’ for the South China Sea dispute. The research examines the impacts of the military’s growing role in China’s foreign policy under Xi Jinping to its military diplomacy in ASEAN. The results show that Xi Jinping’s leadership and vision of the China Dream, which uses military diplomacy as a key tool for advancing its whole diplomatic goals, has been seen as a sign of growing assertiveness.

Regionalism under Challenge: Ideas and Joko Widodo’s Foreign Policy towards ASEAN, 2014-2019

Indonesia’s foreign policy under Joko Widodo ‘Jokowi’ has significantly shifted compared with his predecessor’s era, especially regarding policies on regionalism. While former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono emphasises multilateralism with a particular focus on ASEAN, Jokowi’s administration tends to overlook ASEAN as a multilateral organization. The research investigates the causal root of the tendency by using the concept of ideas in foreign policy. The results argue that the diminished role of Indonesia in ASEAN, especially during the first term of Jokowi’s presidency, is strongly influenced by causal beliefs held by Indonesian political elites and presidential advisors. Despite varying from one individual to another, these ideas have similar characteristics in proposing that Indonesia should expand its concentric circle beyond ASEAN, arguing that ASEAN is intrinsically weak and thus can no longer accommodate Indonesian aspirations. This idea acts as a road map that defines Indonesia’s national interests amid international politics dynamics in the 21st century.

Policing Cyberspace: Understanding Online Repression in Thailand and the Philippines

Social networking sites have become increasingly relevant in the study of democracy and culture in recent years. This study explores the interconnectedness of social networks, the imposition of state control, and management of social behavior by comparing various literature on the operation of repression in Thai and Philippine cyberspaces. It examines the overt and covert policing of daily interactions in digital environments and unpacks governmental technologies’ disciplinary mechanisms following Michel Foucault’s notion of government and biopolitical power. Subjugation in the context of social networks merits analysis for it sheds light on the practice of active and passive self-censorship—the former driven by the pursuit of a moral self-image and the latter by state-sponsored fear. In tracing various points of convergence and divergence in the practice of cyber control in Thailand and the Philippines, the study found newer domains of regulation of social behavior applicable to today’s democracies.