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Michael Magcamit, BA and MA (UP), PhD (Canterbury, NZ)

Michael

Visiting Research Fellow

Email: m.magcamit@qmul.ac.uk

Profile

Hello! I’m Michael, an incoming lecturer in Security Studies in the School of History, Politics, and International Relations at the University of Leicester. Prior to joining Leicester, I was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Queen Mary University of London, and before that, an assistant professor at Musashi University in Tokyo, where I taught International Relations courses on a joint program between Musashi and the LSE.

Growing up in a highly unequal society in the Philippines, it has become my personal advocacy to dedicate my academic and policy works to providing a holistic, nuanced, and useful understanding of security and insecurity both from the perspectives and experiences of state units and human societies. As such, my research and teaching sit at the intersection of Traditional and Non-traditional Security Studies, Critical Conflict and Peace Theories, and Global Governance and Political Economy. These are categorized into three strands, namely: (In)security & Conflict Resolution, (In)security & Socioeconomic Governance, and (In)security & International Order.

My work has appeared in the International Studies Quarterly, International Politics, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, and Japanese Journal of Political Science, among others. I am also the author of Ethnoreligious Otherings and Passionate Conflicts (forthcoming with Oxford UP) and Small Powers and Trading Security (Palgrave/Springer, 2016). For more information and updates about my research, teaching, and public engagement, please visit my website at www.magcamit.com.

 

Teaching

I have previously taught International Relations Theories, East Asian Studies, Comparative Politics, and Globalization and Development to undergraduate and graduate students.

Research

Research Interests:

Security Studies, Religion and IR, Comparative Southeast Asian Politics, International Political Economy

Examples of research funding:

European Commission Marie Curie Individual Fellowship Research Grant of 220,986 USD (2019-2021) for the project, The Divine Tragedy of Securing the Sacred: Religion, Security, and Nationalism in Southeast Asia (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/215142/factsheet/en)

Musashi University Research Funding Research Grant of 5, 799 USD (2016-2018) for the project, The Trading ‘Oligarchipelagos’: National Oligarchs and the Fate of Free Trade in Southeast Asia

New Zealand ASEAN Scholars Awards Grant of 271, 650 USD (2012-2015) for the PhD thesis, Trading Security: Understanding East Asian Security-Trade Linkages in the Twenty-first Century (https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/10862)

Publications

Book:

Small Powers and Trading Security: Contexts, Motives and Outcomes. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer, 2016.

Peer-reviewed articles:

“Imagined Insecurities in Imagined Communities: Manufacturing the Ethnoreligious Others as Security Threats.” International Studies Quarterly. (2020). Online first: https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqaa038.

“The Fault in Japan’s Stars: Shinzo Abe, North Korea, and the Quest for a New Japanese Constitution.”International Politics.(July 2019)Online first: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-019-00186-8

“The Duterte Method: A Neoclassical Realist Guide to Understanding A Small Power’s Foreign Policy Behaviour.” Asian Journal of Comparative Politics. (October 2019) Online first: https://doi.org/10.1177/2057891119882769.

“Explaining the Three-way Linkage between Populism, Securitization, and Realism: President Donald Trump and the Pursuit of America First Doctrine,” World Affairs, Vol. 180, no. 3 (February 2018), pp. 6-35. doi.org/10.1177/0043820017746263.

“Trading in Vain? Investigating the Philippines’ Development-oriented National Security and Free Trade Linkages,” Japanese Journal of Political Science, Vol. 17, No. 1 (March 2016), pp. 84-105, doi.org/10.1017/S1468109915000407.

“East and South China Seas Maritime Dispute Resolution and Escalation: Two Sides of the Same Coin,” Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, Vol. 3, No. 2 (July 2016), pp. 113-134, doi.org/10.1177/2347797016645450 [With Alexander Tan].

“Crouching Tiger, Lurking Dragon: Understanding Taiwan’s Sovereignty and Trade Linkages in the Twenty-first Century,” International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Vol. 15, No. 1 (January 2015), pp. 81-112, doi.org/10.1093/irap/lcu013. [With Alexander Tan].

“Trading in Paranoia: Exploring Singapore’s Security-Trade Linkages in the Twenty- first Century,” Asian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 23, No. 2 (January 2015), pp. 184- 206, doi.org/10.1080/02185377.2014.999248.

“A Costly Affirmation: Exploring Malaysia’s One-Sided Domestic Security Dilemma,” Asian Affairs, Vol. 42, No. 1 (March 2015), pp. 22-45, doi.org/10.1080/00927678.2015.999516.

“Games, Changes, and Fear: Exploring Taiwan’s Cross-Strait Dilemma in the Twenty- first Century,” Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, Vol. 2, No. 1 (April 2015), pp. 92-115, doi.org/10.1177/2347797014565297.

“A Case for Cohabitative Security: The Philippine and Malaysian Experience,” Journal of Human Security, Vol. 10, No. 1 (September 2014), pp. 32-45, doi.org/10.12924/johs2014.10010032.

Public Engagement

Selected Conference Presentations 

  1. International Studies Association Annual Convention (6-9 April 2021, Virtual)
  2. European Consortium for Political Research General Conference (24-28 August 2020, Virtual)

Paper: Ethnoreligious Othering as a Security Defense Strategy of Genocidal States

Paper: Ethnoreligious Otherings and Protracted Conflicts in Southeast Asia

  1. Midwest Political Science Association Annual Conference (4-7 April 2019, United States)
  2. International Studies Association Annual Convention (2-7 April 2018, United States)

Paper: The Persistence of Nation-States: Security, Religion and, Nationalism in Contemporary Southeast Asia

Paper: Explaining the Three-way Linkage between Populism, Securitization and Realism

  1. NZ Political Studies Association Annual Conference (2-3 December 2013, New Zealand)
    Paper: Empirical Analysis of Security-Trade Nexus in Asia-Pacific 
  2. London School of Economics and Political Science (24 March 2021. Virtual)

 

Talks and Lectures 

Talk: Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces in Southeast Asia

  1. Mae Fah Luang University, Thailand (24 February 2021, Virtual)
  2. Queen Mary University of London (27 January 2021. Virtual)

Lecture: Ethnoreligious Otherings and Passionate Conflicts in Pluralistic Southeast Asia

Talk: Ethnoreligious Otherings and Passionate Conflicts

  1. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (22 Aug 2017, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
  2. Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (9 August 2017, Manila, Philippines)

Lecture: The Security Utility of Trade: Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan

Lecture: Small Powers and Trading Security in Southeast Asia: Contexts, Motives, and Outcomes

 

Policy Works 

  1. Emotive, Symbolic, and Perceptual (ESP) Reconciliation and Peacebuilding: Lessons from the Violent Passionate Conflicts in Southeast Asia (in preparation for a UK think tank, 2021)
  2. Asia Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation

Commissioned Paper: The Duterte Doctrine: A Neoclassical Realist Guide to Understanding A Small Power’s Foreign Policy Behaviour (30 September 2018)

  1. ASEAN-Korea Next Generation Policy Experts Forum
  2. Network of ASEAN-China Think Tanks (NACT): 25 Years of ASEAN-China Relations

Korea Foundation and Institute of Security and International Studies (6-7 Feb 2017,

Bangkok, Thailand)

Commissioned Paper: Complex Interdependence and the Fate of ASEAN-China Relations (18-19 May 2016, Manila, Philippines)

  1. ASEAN-Korea Next Generation Policy Experts Junket
  2. LSE Southeast Asia Centre Blog, Ethnoreligious Otherings and Passionate Conflicts, 21 April 2021
  3. EURAXESS Webinar, Supporting Mobile Researchers, 5 September 2020
  4. The Monocle Radio Interview, The Philippine Anti-Terror Bill, 8 June 2020
  5. LSE & Global Society Blog, Parallels Between Religion and Nationalism, 13 September 2019
  6. The Monocle Radio Interview, Populist Leaders, 13 May 2019
  7. The Asia Dialogue, Rodrigo Duterte and the Making of a Populist Demigod Parts 1 and 2, 17 March 2017
  8. University of the Philippines Forum, The Enduring Curse of Patronage Politics, University of the Philippines Forum, 30 April 2016
  9. The New Lens, Duterte’s Populism and Philippine Foreign Policy: Implications for China-Philippine Relations, 10 March 2017

Korea Foundation Next Generation Policy Experts (8-14 May 2016, Seoul, South Korea)

 

Media

  1. LSE Southeast Asia Centre Blog, Ethnoreligious Otherings and Passionate Conflicts, 21 April 2021
  2. EURAXESS Webinar, Supporting Mobile Researchers, 5 September 2020
  3. The Monocle Radio Interview, The Philippine Anti-Terror Bill, 8 June 2020
  4. LSE & Global Society Blog, Parallels Between Religion and Nationalism, 13 September 2019
  5. The Monocle Radio Interview, Populist Leaders, 13 May 2019
  6. The Asia Dialogue, Rodrigo Duterte and the Making of a Populist Demigod Parts 1 and 2, 17 March 2017
  7. University of the Philippines Forum, The Enduring Curse of Patronage Politics, University of the Philippines Forum, 30 April 2016
  8. The New Lens, Duterte’s Populism and Philippine Foreign Policy: Implications for China-Philippine Relations, 10 March 2017

 

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