Publications

March 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Golden Agri-Resources and the Challenge of Sustainable Palm Oil

By: Mattias Fibiger and Adina Wong

Educators

February 2023
Teaching Note

Taiwan, Semiconductors, and a 'New Cold War'?

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 722-035. View Details

January 2023 (Revised May 2024)
Teaching Note

Japan: Land of the Setting Sun?

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 721-007 and 723-415. View Details

January 2023
Teaching Note

Indonesia at a Crossroads

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 721-028. View Details

January 2023 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Singapore: 'From Third World to First'

By: Charlotte L. Robertson and Mattias Fibiger

As Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong prepared to step down in 2022, Singapore faced a number of pressing challenges, from popular discontent at home to geopolitical tensions abroad. The country had become very rich after decades of successful economic management, but... View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; Economic Growth; Public Opinion; Singapore

Educators

January 2023
Supplement

Japan: Land of the Setting Sun? (B)

2022
Chapter

Buying Time? The Vietnam War and Southeast Asia

This article examines the “buying time thesis”—the idea that the American war in Vietnam bought time for the rest of Southeast Asia to build up political, economic, military, and diplomatic defenses against communism. It finds that there is some truth to claims that... View Details

Keywords: Vietnam War; Impact; Legacy; Geopolitics; War; History; Government and Politics; Southeast Asia

2022
Article

Indonesia and the Third Indochina War: The End of Containment

The Third Indochina War called forth dramatic changes in the international relations of Southeast Asia. Foremost among these changes was a shift in the geopolitical orientation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The organization’s founders... View Details

Keywords: Cold War; War; National Security; Southeast Asia; Indonesia; China

June 2022
Book Review

On the Vitality of Area Studies: New Directions in Southeast Asian History

Keywords: Southeast Asia

Read Now

April 2022
Book Review

Review of "Authoritarian Modernization in Indonesia's Early Independence Period: The Foundation of the New Order State (1950-1965)" by Farabi Fakih

Keywords: History; Indonesia

April 2022 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Taiwan, Semiconductors, and a 'New Cold War'?

By: Mattias Fibiger, Patrick Corelli, Hersh Desai and Sophia Lien

Educators

November 2021
Article

The Nixon Doctrine and the Making of Authoritarianism in Island Southeast Asia

This article argues that the Nixon Doctrine was an instrument of authoritarianization in island Southeast Asia. It traces the formulation of the Nixon Doctrine and its implementation through foreign aid decisions, revealing that President Richard Nixon and his chief... View Details

Keywords: Diplomacy; Foreign Aid; Authoritarianism; Geopolitics; Nixon; International Relations; Policy; History; Southeast Asia; United States

March 2021
Article

A Diplomatic Counterrevolution: Indonesian Diplomacy and the Invasion of East Timor

This article reinterprets the Indonesian invasion of East Timor as a "diplomatic counterrevolution." Using the central archival records of the Suharto regime for the first time in English-language scholarship, it argues that Indonesian diplomats pursued diplomacy in... View Details

Keywords: Diplomacy; Geopolitics; History; Globalization; Indonesia; Timor-Leste