Muego produces Philippines guide for State Dept.

In preparation for being posted to international locales, all U.S. foreign-service officers are given a guide to read synopsizing the history and culture of the country in which they will be serving. Written by the best-known experts in the field, these guides are required reading and serve as a sort of “crash course.”

The guide for those going to the Philippines has been written by Benjamin N. Muego, political science and Asian studies.

Muego, who has been an adjunct professor of Southeast Asia studies at the School of Professional and Area Studies in the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Va., since 1982, was asked last year by the school to develop the “self-study” for the country in which he was born.

Administered by the U.S. Department of State, the National Foreign Affairs Training Center serves career foreign service officers and military officials as well as ambassadors and their spouses. The current ambassador to the Philippines, Richard J. Ricciardone, took the preparation course last year, Muego said.

In his Self-Study Guide to the Philippines, Muego outlines information about the complex and diverse country, which has had a long and sometimes tumultuous relationship with the United States. Topics covered include the role of the Catholic Church in the country, foreign policy, key actors in Philippine politics and the economy.

“It’s the responsibility of the author to present accurate and unbiased information,” Muego said, whatever his or her own opinions might be.

The guide also contains an extensive bibliography for further investigation.

A nationally known expert on Southeast Asia, Muego is a frequent speaker and holds several adjunct professor positions, including at Ohio University. At the end of January, he will deliver his annual lecture at O.U.’s Center for Southeast Asia Studies, as part of the International Studies Forum. The topic will be presidential politics in the Philippines.

He also holds adjunct professor positions at the U.S. Air Force Special Operations School in Hurlburt Field, Fla., and at the Air Force’s Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management in Dayton.

Last September he was invited to give a presentation before an interagency policy advisory committee on “Democratization and Political Islam in Southeast Asia,” attended by representatives of such organizations as the Heritage Foundation, the World Bank and the Carnegie Endowment, along with the State Department and Defense Department.

The author of Spectator Society: The Philippines under Martial Rule, and more than two dozen book chapters and articles on political and regional security issues in Southeast Asia, Muego was an International Relations Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1990-91 and was a visiting Fulbright professor of political science at the University of the Philippines-Visayas in 1986-87.

In the summers, he leads students from around the United States on a Vietnam field study program, during which they study at Hanoi University of Education and tour the country. This summer the trip will include for the first time visits to noted Viet Nam War battle sites Khe Sahn and Quang Tri, as well as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Muego also has twice hosted the university’s administrators at BGSU.

Currently chair of Faculty Senate for the second time, Muego previously held the position in 1993-94, as well as twice serving as secretary of the senate.