Yogyakarta, October 2nd 2020—In the opening of Magister of International Relations, the Graduate Program of the Department of International Relations of Universitas Gadjah Mada cooperated with Institute of International Studies to welcome their new students in the public lecture called Critical Review of International Relations Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic. This public lecture presented four speakers and generally talked about the importance of internal relations science in responding to changes at the global level caused by the pandemic.
The public lecture was opened at 08.30 a.m. by the MC that explained about rules, terms and conditions, and the event’s schedule. After praying, the MC left the process of discussion to the moderator. The moderator, Dr. Siti Muti’ah Setiawati, M.A., which is the Head of Magister of International Relations of Universitas Gadjah Mada, explained briefly about the reasons why this public lecture was held, before she let the keynote speaker deliver the material.
The keynote speaker of this public lecture was Dr. Arifi Salman, General Consulate in New York. He talked about Diplomation in the Pandemic Time. Arifi explained much about the condition of relations between countries during the current pandemic and Indonesia’s position in these relations, both at the international, multilateral, as well as bilateral levels.
Talked about the relations between countries, the next speaker, Muhadi Sugiono, M.A., a lecturer of the Department of International Relations of Universitas Gadjah Mada, generally explained more about theories. With his presentation called COVID-19 and the Theorizing Change in International Relations, Muhadi explained about four big theories’ spectrums in international relations science, its characteristics, and the point of views in responding to the ongoing pandemic.
The explanation of Muhadi then continued by the next speaker, Dr. Dafri Agus Salim, M.A., another lecturer of the Department of International Relations of Universitas Gadjah Mada. His materi called International Responses about Pandemic: The Rise of Political Realism? was brought by Safri to examine the response of each country to the COVID-19 pandemic which turns out to be in line with the point of view of realism theory, which was one of four big theories’ spectrums that was explained earlier by Muhtadi.
In contrast to Muhadi and Dafri, the next speaker, Dr. Maharani Hapsari, who is also the lecturer of the Department of International Relations of Universitas Gadjah Mada, offered new things in her explanation. Her presentation called Pandemic: Opportunity to Drive Planetary Citizenship, Maharani talked about how pandemic has a relation with global extrativism crisis, even after we enter the new normal period. Then, Maharani also explained about planetary citizenship which is widely referred to as new politics of the commons.
As the closing speaker, Dr. Riza Noer Arfani, M.A., also a lecturer of the Department of International Relations of Universitas Gadjah Mada, talked about Deglobalize, Deurbanize: The Context of International Relations in Pandemic Time which was also his research proposal. Before he explained about the topic, Riza explained about the international political-economic review and deglobalization and deurbanization in general. In his research proposal, Riza Riza showed possible theoretical and practical scenarios to use.
Periodically, during each change of speakers, the moderator updates the number of participants who are members of this general lecture session. The public lecture was continued by question and answer sessions that were done in two terms. In the first term, the moderator and the presenter select three questions specifically for the keynote speaker, Dr. Arifi Salman. In the second term, three further questions were selected for the other speakers. The speakers also complement each other’s answers. Due to time constraints, after expressing special thanks from the Department of International Relations for Dr. Arifi Salman for taking the time to join and share material, the moderator closed the public lecture at 11.37 a.m.