The Institute of Asian Studies at Universiti Brunei Darussalam is pleased to announce the publication of IAS Working Paper No 74: A Compendium of Armed Conflicts in Southeast Asia: In Search of Typology by Ooi Keat Gin.
Please see below for details.
Abstract:
Wars, armed combat, and military occupations are as old as humanity with conflict arising over mates, food and subsequently territory and material resources and ultimately power, control, and domination. The weapons of conflict have also evolved in sophistication, efficacy, and destructiveness with little sign of abatement. There are presently scores of conflict hotspots (of varying degree) across the globe with others simmering under the surface.
This paper details examples drawn from Southeast Asia as an exploratory study to develop a compendium and potential typology set of wars and armed conflicts across the region over time. The aim is to discern patterns of occurrence, and more importantly, primary driving forces and/or ‘push’ factors that precipitated conflict in the first place. Scrutiny and analysis of discernible patterns might reveal certain conditions and situational commonalities that alert us to the need of making concerted efforts to avoid similar occurrences in the future.
Ooi Keat Gin is Professor of the modern history of Brunei/Borneo at the Academy of Brunei Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei and visiting professor of the Korean Institute of ASEAN Studies, Busan University of Foreign Studies, Busan, South Korea.
Book-length works related to wars and conflicts inter alia Japanese Empire in the Tropics, 2 vols. (Ohio, 1998); Traumas and Heroism: The European Community in Sarawak during the Pacific War and Japanese Occupation, 1941-1945 (Opus Publications, 2007); Rising Sun over Borneo (Macmillan/St Martin’s, 1999); The Japanese Occupation of Borneo, 1941-1945 (Routledge, 2011); Borneo in the Cold War, 1950–1990 (Routledge 2020).
Other recent publications: as editor, Borneo and Sulawesi. Indigenous Peoples, Empires, and Area Studies (Routledge 2020); Malaysia and the Cold War Era (Routledge 2020); co-edited, The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Brunei (Routledge 2023); co-authored, The Handbook of Southeast Asian Studies: Pioneers and Critical Thinkers (Springer in press).
An elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (London), he is associate editor for Suvannabhumi: Multi-disciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, and honorary advisor for International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS), both Scopus-listed peer-reviewed scholarly journals.
To see more IAS Working Papers, please visit the IAS Working Papers web page.
