Dr. Evan A. Laksmana (Senior Research Fellow, NUS) and Prof. Terence Lee (Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, NUS) explored the organisational features and behaviours of Indonesian military beyond civil-military relations. This event was chaired by Prof. Hyun Bang Shin.
Talk Abstract:
Studies of the Indonesian military are primarily focused on its political role. There are hardly any studies on the intra-organisational dynamics of the military. Who makes up the Indonesian military officer corps? Which religious and ethnic groups do they come from? How well educated and professionally trained are they? What sort of career trajectory do they experience and to what extent does combat shape promotions? Do military retirees simply fade away or do they enter politics? What aspects of politics do retirees engage in after retirement? These questions have significant implications to how we understand the organisational features and behaviours of Indonesian military beyond civil-military relations. This talk introduces the INDOMAG (Indonesian Military Academy Graduates) dataset where we record the biographical and professional track-records of thousands of the officers who entered the organization since the 1940s and how they left. We discuss the key trends of our data and offer new avenues for further research.
A video recording of this event is available to watch here.
Speakers and Chair Biographies:
Dr. Evan A. Laksmana is Senior Research Fellow, Centre on Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.
Prof. Terence Lee is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore.
Prof. Hyun Bang Shin (@urbancommune) is Professor of Geography and Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science and directs the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre. His research centres on the critical analysis of the political economy of speculative urbanisation, gentrification and displacement, urban spectacles, and urbanism with particular attention to Asian cities. His books include Planetary Gentrification (Polity, 2016), Neoliberal Urbanism, Contested Cities and Housing in Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Exporting Urban Korea? Reconsidering the Korean Urban Development Experience (Routledge, 2021), and The Political Economy of Mega Projects in Asia: Globalization and Urban Transformation (Routledge, forthcoming). He is Editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and is also a trustee of the Urban Studies Foundation.