2023/07/20 by Mattias Fibiger · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Asian Studies and History #Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics
paper · doi:10.1093/oso/9780197667224.001.0001
openalex publication_date 2023/07/20 · openalex created_date 2023/07/22 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/27
Abstract This book argues that the Indonesian dictator Suharto used the global Cold War to wage his own domestic and regional Cold Wars, mobilizing international capital to construct a counterrevolutionary dictatorship in Indonesia and promote authoritarian reaction in Southeast Asia. In the wake of the murder of the leaders of the Indonesian army by elements of the Communist Party of Indonesia on October 1, 1965, Suharto orchestrated a politicide in which some half a million leftists were killed. But Suharto’s ambitions spanned far beyond mass murder. He sought to establish political stability, stimulate economic development, and promote regional security. Debt relief, international aid, and private investment enabled Suharto to bypass the processes of bargaining and compromise that undergird all political orders and establish a much more exclusionary regime than would have otherwise been possible. International capital also helped Suharto reverse a crippling economic crisis and ignite processes of economic development that won the New Order the loyalty of untold numbers of Indonesians. The Suharto regime also internationalized counterrevolution in Southeast Asia, establishing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to contain Chinese influence and promulgating its authoritarian security doctrine of national resilience across the region. The history of Suharto’s Cold War ultimately reveals the pivotal role of capital in the unfolding of the Cold War in the Global South.