Professor Fibiger conducts research on twentieth-century international history, focusing primarily on political economy and international relations in Southeast Asia.
Professor Fibiger's first book is entitled Suharto's Cold War: Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and the World. It charts how the Indonesian dictator Suharto used the global Cold War to wage his own domestic and regional Cold Wars, marshaling international aid and investment to construct a counterrevolutionary dictatorship in Indonesia and promote authoritarian reaction elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Based on archival work in eight countries and four languages, including the central archival records of the Suharto regime itself, the book recasts Indonesian development and dictatorship as international and transnational phenomena. The book was published by Oxford University Press in 2023 and received the Michael H. Hunt Prize for International History from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations in 2024.
Professor Fibiger is currently at work on a new book project on the global dollar system.
In addition to his book projects, Professor Fibiger has published articles and book chapters on a diverse array of topics, including the origins of neoconservatism, the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, the Mayaguez crisis of 1975, and the regional effects of the Vietnam War.
Mattias Fibiger is the Poronui Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Business, Government, and International Economy (BGIE) Unit. A historian by training, he conducts research on Asia's twentieth century. He teaches in the Business, Government, and International Economy course in the MBA Program's Required Curriculum as well as in various executive education programs. Since joining the faculty at HBS, he has won awards for his scholarship and his teaching.
Professor Fibiger's research focuses primarily on the intersection of political economy and international relations in Southeast Asia. His first book, Suharto's Cold War: Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and the World, was published Oxford University Press in 2023. The book charts how the Indonesian leader Suharto mobilized resources made available through the global Cold War to wage his own domestic and regional Cold Wars, marshaling international aid and investment to construct a counterrevolutionary dictatorship in Indonesia and promote authoritarian reaction elsewhere in Southeast Asia. He is currently at work on a second book project on the global dollar system. Professor Fibiger has also published journal articles and book chapters on a wide array of topics.
Professor Fibiger received his Ph.D. in history from Cornell University. As an undergraduate, he studied history at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
- Books
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- Journal Articles
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- Book Chapters
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- Fibiger, Mattias. "Buying Time? The Vietnam War and Southeast Asia." In The Vietnam War in the Pacific World, edited by Brian Cuddy and Fredrik Logevall, 231–256. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022. View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias. "The Pivot: Neoconservatives, the Philippines, and the Democracy Agenda." In The Reagan Administration, the Cold War, and the Transition to Democracy Promotion, edited by Robert Pee and William Michael Schmidli, 209–230. Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. View Details
- Cases and Teaching Materials
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- Robertson, Charlotte L., and Mattias Fibiger. "Singapore: 'From Third World to First'." Harvard Business School Case 723-023, January 2023. (Revised May 2024.) View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias, Jeremy Friedman, Leah Azeze, and Temi Ojuade. "The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Conflict on the Nile." Harvard Business School Case 724-004, July 2023. View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias, and Adina Wong. "Golden Agri-Resources and the Challenge of Sustainable Palm Oil." Harvard Business School Case 723-059, March 2023. (Revised March 2024.) View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias. "Taiwan, Semiconductors, and a 'New Cold War'?" Harvard Business School Teaching Note 723-044, February 2023. View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias. "Japan: Land of the Setting Sun?" Harvard Business School Teaching Note 723-424, January 2023. (Revised May 2024.) View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias. "Indonesia at a Crossroads." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 723-035, January 2023. View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias. "Japan: Land of the Setting Sun? (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 723-415, January 2023. View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias, Patrick Corelli, Hersh Desai, and Sophia Lien. "Taiwan, Semiconductors, and a 'New Cold War'?" Harvard Business School Case 722-035, April 2022. (Revised March 2024.) View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias, and Soichiro Chiba. "Japan: Land of the Setting Sun?" Harvard Business School Case 721-007, January 2021. (Revised January 2024.) View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias. "Indonesia at a Crossroads." Harvard Business School Case 721-028, December 2020. (Revised January 2023.) View Details
- Cavallo, Alberto, Kristin Fabbe, Mattias Fibiger, Jeremy Friedman, Reshmaan Hussam, Vincent Pons, and Matthew Weinzierl. "The BGIE Twenty (2024 version)." Harvard Business School Technical Note 718-032, December 2017. (Revised November 2023.) View Details
- Other Publications and Materials
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- Fibiger, Mattias. "On the Vitality of Area Studies: New Directions in Southeast Asian History." American Historical Review 127, no. 2 (June 2022): 937–941. View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias. Review of "Authoritarian Modernization in Indonesia's Early Independence Period: The Foundation of the New Order State (1950-1965)" by Farabi Fakih. Indonesia, no. 113 (April 2022): 125–127. View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias. Review of "The Cold War in Southeast Asia: An Interpretive History," by Ang Cheng Guan. H-Diplo 20, no. 39 (May 20, 2019): 9–12. View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias. Review of "A Wide Anticommunist Arc: Britain, ASEAN, and Nixon's Triangular Diplomacy" by Wen-Qing Ngoei. H-Diplo, no. 778 (June 26, 2018). View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias. "Conspiracy as Foreign Policy: A Review of Greg Poulgrain's The Incubus of Intervention: Conflicting Indonesia Strategies of John F. Kennedy and Allen Dulles." Inside Indonesia 123 (January–March 2016). View Details
- Research Summary
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Professor Fibiger conducts research on twentieth-century international history, focusing primarily on political economy and international relations in Southeast Asia.
Professor Fibiger's first book is entitled Suharto's Cold War: Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and the World. It charts how the Indonesian dictator Suharto used the global Cold War to wage his own domestic and regional Cold Wars, marshaling international aid and investment to construct a counterrevolutionary dictatorship in Indonesia and promote authoritarian reaction elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Based on archival work in eight countries and four languages, including the central archival records of the Suharto regime itself, the book recasts Indonesian development and dictatorship as international and transnational phenomena. The book was published by Oxford University Press in 2023 and received the Michael H. Hunt Prize for International History from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations in 2024.
Professor Fibiger is currently at work on a new book project on the global dollar system.
In addition to his book projects, Professor Fibiger has published articles and book chapters on a diverse array of topics, including the origins of neoconservatism, the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, the Mayaguez crisis of 1975, and the regional effects of the Vietnam War.
- Awards & Honors
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Winner of the 2022 Stuart L. Bernath Scholarly Article Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) for "A Diplomatic Counter-Revolution: Indonesian Diplomacy and the Invasion of East Timor" (Modern Asian Studies, March 2021).
Received the 2022 HBS Student Association Faculty Teaching Award for exceptional contributions to the graduating class's HBS experience.
Received the 2022 Charles M. Williams Award for Teaching Excellence.
Winner of the 2024 Michael H. Hunt Prize for International History from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) for Suharto's Cold War: Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and the World (Oxford University Press, 2023).
- Additional Information
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Links
- Areas of Interest
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