Dan McCoy is a doctoral candidate in the history program at Northern Illinois University.
As a Fulbright U.S. Student Researcher in Indonesia, his research focuses on the role and influence of Indonesian diplomacy involving various Indonesian state and non-state actors within and without the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) during the Cambodian-Vietnamese War, the most significant conflict of the Third Indochina War (1978-1991), when the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) dislodged the Khmer Rouge and incited ASEAN’s most extensive diplomatic stress test to date. Dan’s research seeks to uncover how and why officials spanning the Indonesian foreign ministry, defense ministry, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Indonesia (ABRI-Angkatan Bersenjata Republik Indonesia), and the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) navigated the Third Indochina War with distinctive policy positions and divergent ends in mind which then, by the substance and output of their diplomacy, prompted ASEAN to promote Indonesia as the Association’s “interlocuter” in seeking a peaceful resolution to the Kampuchean Crisis. His research situates itself in the evolving Cold War historiography that decenters the U.S. and USSR and focuses instead on regional, indigenous initiatives and agencies within Southeast Asia orchestrated by Southeast Asians on behalf of Southeast Asia.
Dan looks forward to working under the tutelage of his Indonesian Fulbright sponsor, Senior Fellow Dr. Philips Vermonte of CSIS, during his Fulbright grant period in Indonesia. Dan’s wife, Milli, and their exuberant two-year-old daughter, Penelope, will accompany him to Jakarta. Dan and Milli place invaluable stock in their daughter benefitting from her first international experience in such a culturally diverse and multifaceted nation as Indonesia.
Dan holds a master’s degree in history with an emphasis in international relations from the University of New Orleans and a bachelor’s degree in history from St. Edward’s University.
