Dr. Walden Bello will speak about the likely descent of the Asia-Pacific region into a period of destabilizing conflict, with the Philippines quickly becoming a frontline state in the US strategy to contain China. The Obama administration’s so-called “Pivot to Asia” will be weighted against China’s controversial moves in the Western Pacific, and in particular its claim of the whole South China Sea. In addition, he will also address the rise of right-wing elements in Japan and their call for a tougher stance on the dispute with China over the deserted Senkaku Islands, as a third source of destabilization in the region.
Dr. Bello is as senior analyst of Focus on the Global South and Member of the Philippine House of Representatives from Akbayan Partylist. He is the author or co-author of 14 books on global, Asian, and Philippines issues, notably The Food Wars (2009), American Lake: The Nuclear Peril in the Pacific (1984) (co-authored with Peter Hayes and Lyuba Zarsky), People and Power in the Pacific (1992), Dark Victory: The United States and Global Poverty (1999), Global Finance: Thinking on Regulating Speculative Capital Markets (2000) and The Future in the Balance: Essays on Globalisation and Resistance (2001); The Anti-Development State: the Political Economy of Permanent Crisis in the Philippines (2004); and Dilemmas of Domination: the Unmaking of the American Empire (2005).
Discussant: Stein Tønnesson, Research Professor at PRIO
Chair: Marco Mezzera, Senior Adviser at NOREF
The seminar is co-hosted by the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF).
