Khoa Lịch sử, dưới sự chỉ đạo của Chi ủy, Ban Chủ nhiệm Khoa, trân trọng thông báo và kính mời các Thầy Cô, các Nhà Khoa học, các Anh Chị Em Nghiên cứu sinh, Học viên Cao học, cùng các Bạn Sinh viên tới dự buổi Seminar tháng 12 với các thông tin cụ thể như sau:
Chủ đề: “What hath they achieved? Reflecting on Wars, Conflicts, and Occupations in Southeast Asia”/ Suy ngẫm về Chiến tranh, Xung đột và Sự Chiếm đóng ở Đông Nam Á
Diễn giả: Prof. Dr. Ooi Keat Gin, Giáo sư Sử học tại Asia Pacific Research Unit (APRU-USM), School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia
Thời gian: 9h-11h30 sáng Thứ Tư, ngày 17 tháng 12 năm 2014
Địa điểm: Phòng 506 nhà E, Trường Đại học Khoa học Xã hội và Nhân văn, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội, 336 Nguyễn Trãi, Thanh Xuân, Hà Nội
Ngôn ngữ: Anh và Việt
Xin trân trọng kính báo và hoan nghênh sự hiện diện, tham gia của Quý Thầy Cô, các Nhà Nghiên cứu, cùng Anh Chị Em Học viên, Sinh viên!
Thính giả quan tâm đến nội dung buổi thuyết trình có thể đọc qua phần tóm tắt dưới của tác giả.
What hath they achieved?
Reflecting on Wars, Conflicts, and Occupations in Southeast Asia
OoiKeat Gin
Asia Pacific Research Unit (APRU-USM)
School of Humanities
UniversitiSains Malaysia
Abstract
Wars, conflicts, and military occupations are as old as mankind. Man has fought one another initially over foods and mates, developing into conflicts over territories, material possessions, and ultimately the greed for power and control. Weapons of war become ever sophisticated and powerful whilst effectiveness and impact are alarmingly destructive. Over the ages wars continued to be waged and conflicts abound in practically every corner of the world on land, on sea, and latterly from the early twentieth century, in the skies. Has man not learn anything from his belligerent and destructive behaviour over time? Apparently and regretfully not. As the present prose is being written there are currently scores of hotspots of various degrees of on-going armed conflicts alongside all-out wars across the globe, others simmering to blow-up at any time whilst some have been protracted clashes and occupation over decades seemingly unending.
Across Southeast Asiawars and conflicts were and still are common place phenomena over the centuries. The twentieth century was undisputedly incomparable to past centuries as being the most destructive man-made disasters namely warfare that swept across most of the region. Arguably the Second World War (1939-1945) that engulfed the whole of Southeast Asia (besides other parts of Asia, the European and African theatres) witnessed the collective death in the millions; the majority of fatalities were civilians and non-combatants. Wartime military occupation, more often harsh and uncompromising, could result in a higher death rate particularly of civilians than the battlefields and front-lines. Moreover the toll of lootings, rapes on the one hand and diseases, protracted hardships, deprivations on the other hand made wartime occupation appear to be the greater evil vis-à-vis the battlefield.
Although it is very tempting to seek and prescribe panaceas for preventing future wars and/or resolution to current conflicts, such a quest presents insurmountable challenges. Instead the intention is to offer in-depth analysis and insights as to the ‘whys’ and ‘how’s’ of past wars and military occupations in Southeast Asia. The overarching question is basically of how war and/or occupation impact on historical development. In other words how have war and/occupation ‘decide’ post-war/post-occupation developments. On a micro-level, how have war and/occupation ‘affect and/or influence’ the fate of individuals. Did the oppressive occupation and difficult jungle existence during the Japanese occupation (1941-45) of Malaya made communist leader Chin Peng embarked on another conflict (the so-called ‘Emergency’, 1948-60) shortly after the surrender of Imperial Japan? Did Aung San utilize and exploit the Japanese invasion and occupation to press for Burma’s independence from the British? Or did the First and Second World Wars (1914-18, 1939-45) re-draw the map and boundaries of Southeast Asia?Drawing from examples and case studies across Southeast Asia of the nineteen and twentieth centuries this lecture attempts to evaluate the significance and extent of the influences, effects and impacts of war and military occupation on the development of the political states and peoples of the region.
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