Professor Fibiger conducts research on twentieth century international history, focusing on political economy and foreign policy in Southeast Asia.
Professor Fibiger's current book project is entitled Suharto's Cold War: Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and the World. It examines how the Indonesian dictator Suharto used the global Cold War to wage his own domestic and regional Cold Wars, first by constructing a developmental authoritarian regime in Indonesia and then by projecting his developmental authoritarian vision outward into Southeast Asia. Based on archival research in eight countries and four languages, including the central archival records of the Suharto regime, the book recasts authoritarianism and development as international and transnational phenomena.
Professor Fibiger has articles, book chapters, and working papers on a diverse array of topics, including the origins of neoconservatism, the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, the Mayaguez crisis of 1975, and the effects of the Vietnam War in Southeast Asia.
Mattias Fibiger is an assistant professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy (BGIE) unit. A historian by training, he conducts research on Asia's twentieth century.
Professor Fibiger's research focuses primarily on the intersection of political economy and international relations in Southeast Asia. His first book is entitled
Suharto's Cold War: Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and the World and is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. The book examines 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 to promote authoritarian reaction elsewhere in Southeast Asia. He is currently at work on a second book project on the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98. Professor Fibiger has also published journal articles and book chapters on a wide array of topics, including the Nixon Doctrine, the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, the regional effects of the Vietnam War, and more.
Professor Fibiger received his Ph.D. in history from Cornell University. As an undergraduate, he studied history at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Before arriving at HBS, he was a visiting researcher at Universitas Indonesia. Since joining the faculty, he has won multiple awards for his teaching, including the Williams Award and the Student Association Faculty Teaching Award.
- Journal Articles
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- Fibiger, Mattias. "Indonesia and the Third Indochina War: The End of Containment." Journal of American-East Asian Relations 29, no. 3 (2022): 240–270. View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias. "The Nixon Doctrine and the Making of Authoritarianism in Island Southeast Asia." Diplomatic History 45, no. 5 (November 2021): 954–982. View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias. "A Diplomatic Counterrevolution: Indonesian Diplomacy and the Invasion of East Timor." Modern Asian Studies 55, no. 2 (March 2021): 587–628. View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias. "Remaking the Imperial Presidency: The Mayaguez Incident of 1975 and the Contradictions of Credibility." Diplomacy & Statecraft 31, no. 1 (2020): 118–142. View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias. "Off the Record." The Appendix 1, no. 4 (October 2013). View Details
- 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. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, forthcoming. 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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- 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 2023.) 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. 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 April 2023.) View Details
- Fibiger, Mattias, and Soichiro Chiba. "Japan: Land of the Setting Sun?" Harvard Business School Case 721-007, January 2021. (Revised November 2021.) 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 (2022 version)." Harvard Business School Technical Note 718-032, December 2017. (Revised January 2022.) 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 on political economy and foreign policy in Southeast Asia.
Professor Fibiger's current book project is entitled Suharto's Cold War: Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and the World. It examines how the Indonesian dictator Suharto used the global Cold War to wage his own domestic and regional Cold Wars, first by constructing a developmental authoritarian regime in Indonesia and then by projecting his developmental authoritarian vision outward into Southeast Asia. Based on archival research in eight countries and four languages, including the central archival records of the Suharto regime, the book recasts authoritarianism and development as international and transnational phenomena.
Professor Fibiger has articles, book chapters, and working papers on a diverse array of topics, including the origins of neoconservatism, the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, the Mayaguez crisis of 1975, and the effects of the Vietnam War in Southeast Asia.
- 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.
- Additional Information
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Links
- Areas of Interest
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