Bradley Simpson

Professor

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Ph.D., Northwestern

Areas of Specialty

US foreign relations, Southeast Asian History, International History, Development, Human Rights

Current Research Interests

History of Self-Determination, 1941-1991; US-Indonesian relations 1965-1998

Biography

I teach and research twentieth century U.S. foreign relations and international history, and have an interest in US-southeast relations, political economy, human rights and development. My first book, Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.-Indonesian Relations, 1960-1968 (Stanford 2008) explores the intersection of anti-Communism and development thinking in shaping U.S. Indonesian relations.

My new book New book: The First Right: Self-Determination and the Transformation of International Order, 1941-2000  examines the political, cultural and legal descent of the idea of self-determination through post 1945 US foreign relations and international politics. I use the contested history of self-determination claims to re-think contemporary notions of human rights, sovereignty and international order as they intersected with the processes of decolonization, Cold War conflict and globalization.

I’m also founder and director of a project at the non-profit National Security Archive to declassify U.S. government documents concerning Indonesia and East Timor during the reign of General Suharto (1966-1998). This project will serve as the basis for a study of U.S.-Indonesian-international relations from 1965 to 1999, exploring how the international community’s embrace of an authoritarian regime in Indonesia shaped development, civil-military relations, human rights and Islamic politics.

Recent essays and reviews of mine are in International History Review, Cold War History, Reviews in American History, Diplomatic History, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Critical Asian Studies, and Peace and Change. I was featured in the recent Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio documentary Accomplices in Atrocity; The Indonesian Killings of 1965.

For a complete list of publications and writings please visit my personal website:

https://www.bradleyrsimpson.com/