Edcel John A. Ibarra, an assistant professor at the UP Diliman (UPD) Department of Political Science, is this year’s recipient of the Aileen San Pablo Baviera Prize by the Graduate Research and Development Network on Asian Security (GRADNAS) for his research paper Issue-Based Cooperation on Conflict Resolution in the South China Sea: Exploring Roles for ASEAN Beyond the Code of Conduct.

In Ibarra’s research paper, he stated that “the article offers an original framework that can be used to examine other aspects of conflict in the South China Sea or analyze similar multiparty conflicts.”

Among Ibarra’s research interests are territorial and maritime disputes, maritime security and ocean governance, and regional security.

According to the GRADNAS website, the [selection] committee was impressed with the article “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 GRADNAS write-up further explains that Ibarra’s work “resonates with the scholarship advocated by Aileen Baviera, in whose name this prize is offered.”

The GRADNAS website states that the Aileen San Pablo Baviera Prize is an award that recognizes “impactful academic publications on Southeast Asia-China relations.” The award was named in honor of the late scholar and founding GRADNAS member who was known in the field of Philippine foreign policy and a China specialist, particularly in China’s international and security relations in Southeast Asia. Baviera was the dean of the UPD Asian Center from 2003 to 2009.

The committee was composed of Evelyn Goh, DPIR, GRADNAS convener and Shedden professor of strategic policy studies at the Australian National University; Helen Nesadurai, PhD, a professor of political economy at Monash University Malaysia and a GRADNAS Senior Scholar Network member; and Alvin Camba, PhD, an assistant professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a GRADNAS Emerging Scholars Network member.

According to its website, GRADNAS “promotes Asian security research that effectively combines conceptual rigor and innovation with deep empirical analysis.” Based at the Australian National University, the network is composed of “established scholars from leading universities around the world” and “advanced doctoral students and promising early career researchers in a series of programs for training, exchange, and research collaboration.”