Open Letter: PhISO (Philippine International Studies Organization)

OPEN LETTER

Dear all,

I am calling out to all academics, practitioners and students of International Relations (or popularly known in the Philippines as International Studies) to join me in creating an association which I will call the Philippine International Studies Organization (PhISO). Most countries abroad have professional IR organization, which represents mutual collaborations among IR scholars, professionals, and students. I aspired the same venture in forming PhISO because there is a potential 'Philippine IR' to emerge from the Global South.

The primal mission of PhISO is to instill a culture of scholarship whose interest is on the theories and praxes of both International Relations as a discipline and international affairs of the Philippines.

PhISO's first step is to gather all Filipino academicians (scholars, teachers, and students) in the field of International Relations including related social/physical sciences and practitioners (diplomats, etc.) by convening e-meetings through Facebook and Gmail groups. The first project is to form a core group that aims to formally establish PhISO. Members of the Executive Committee (officers) will be selected from the core group. Invitations will simultaneously be emailed to selected Filipino IR scholars here and abroad.

The second step is to convene a conference at the end of 2016. The tentative schedule is on November 21-25 or early December, which includes panels, one or two plenary session(s), and meetings of the core group members. Papers presented will be collected, peer-reviewed, and published in a journal as a special issue or in an edited volume by early 2017.

The third step is to go global by participating in the 5th Global International Studies Conference 2017 at the National Taiwan University. PhISO's goal is to become a member of the World International Studies Committee (WISC). By late-2017 or after our participation at WISC, we will officially submit our interest to become a member (partner organization) of the International Studies Association (ISA), the highly respected and widely known scholarly association dedicated to international studies.

PhISO's fourth step is to contact prestigious publishing houses in order to find a host for the PhISO's flagship journal. In 2018 onwards, PhISO members are hoping to participate in the ISA and ISA-Asia Pacific conventions annually, and papers presented will be part of PhISO's publications.

Please email me at contact@nassef.info and if you have Facebook please join the group by clicking here.

I am looking forward to receiving your responses.

Yours truly,

Nassef