Maritime Heritage Diplomacy: Sunken warships in Southeast Asia

Dr Natali Pearson introduces the concept of heritage diplomacy, using it as an analytical tool to consider the strategic implications of sunken warships not only in but as diplomacy.

Of the estimated 20,000 war and merchant ships sunk globally in World War II, over 10 percent—more than 2000 vessels—were lost in Southeast Asian waters. Today, the region’s maritime domain holds significant strategic importance as witness to increasingly contested claims over territory and resources, and as a staging ground from which regional and foreign powers seek to project influence through geo-cultural initiatives such as the Indo-Pacific, Project Mausam and the Belt and Road Initiative. In this presentation, I introduce the concept of heritage diplomacy, using it as an analytical tool to consider the strategic implications of sunken warships not only in but as diplomacy. As I propose, heritage is not just a source of friction or a site for collaboration but, increasingly, a powerful tool of diplomacy with the potential to blur the distinction between hard and soft power. This presentation contributes to the theorisation of maritime heritage beyond the paradigm of protection and preservation, and considers the potential of heritage diplomacy to constitute new international relationships for the future. 

About the speaker

Dr Natali Pearson is a Senior Lecturer at the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, the University of Sydney, where she is affiliated with the Discipline of Archaeology. Her research focuses on critical heritage studies, with a particular focus on maritime heritage in Southeast Asia. Natali’s first book, Belitung: The Afterlives of a Shipwreck, is published by University of Hawai‘i Press and National University of Singapore Press. She is President of the Indonesia Council and Councillor for the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology. 

• Organiser: SOAS Centre of South East Asian Studies
• Contact: centres@soas.ac.uk