Mattias Fibiger

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, Suharto's Cold War: Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and the World, was published Oxford University Press in 2023. 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 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 and the global dollar system. 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.

Research summary

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.

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.

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Fibiger, Mattias. Suharto's Cold War: Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and the World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023.

*Journal articles *

• Fibiger, Mattias. "Indonesia and the Third Indochina War: The End of Containment." Journal of American-East Asian Relations 29, no. 3 (2022): 240–270.
• Fibiger, Mattias. "The Nixon Doctrine and the Making of Authoritarianism in Island Southeast Asia." Diplomatic History 45, no. 5 (November 2021): 954–982.
• Fibiger, Mattias. "A Diplomatic Counterrevolution: Indonesian Diplomacy and the Invasion of East Timor." Modern Asian Studies 55, no. 2 (March 2021): 587–628.
• Fibiger, Mattias. "Remaking the Imperial Presidency: The Mayaguez Incident of 1975 and the Contradictions of Credibility." Diplomacy & Statecraft 31, no. 1 (2020): 118–142.

Book chapters

• 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.
• 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.

AWARDS & HONORS

• 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.