The Swedish Research Council has decided to grant SEK 16,4 million (c. EUR 1,8 million) to Stefan Eklöf Amirell, Linnaeus University, to establish a research environment about treaty-making in Southeast Asia during the colonial period.
The funding will be used to create a research environment in global and diplomatic history named “Imperial Expansion and Intercultural Diplomacy: Treatymaking in Maritime Southeast Asia, c.1700−1920”. The research environment will study the hundreds, and possibly thousands, of international treaties that were negotiated and signed between different states in the region and the colonial powers that vied for influence there.
By studying these treaties, it is easier to understand how imperial dominance was established and maintained in the large and multifaceted region of Southeast Asia. This understanding is important to understand how relations between different Southeast Asian states are created and maintained today.
The environment has been given funding for six years of research (2021-27) and consists of seven researchers. In addition to Stefan Amirell, Hans Hägerdal, Eleonora Poggio and Birgit Tremml-Werner, Linnaeus University will participate, along with Preedee Hongsaton (Lund Univerity and Thammasat University), Ariel Lopez (University of the Philippines) and Maarten Maanse (Leiden Univeristy).
