Bertrand, Jacques 1965–

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Bertrand, Jacques 1965–

PERSONAL:

Born 1965. Education: McGill University, B.A. (first-class honors), 1987; London School of Economics and Political Science, M.Sc., 1988; Princeton University, M.A., 1990, Ph.D., 1995.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Asian Institute, Munk Centre for International Studies, Rm. 107N, University of Toronto, 1 Devonshire Pl., Toronto, Ontario M5S 3K7, Canada. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, lecturer in political science, 1994-95; University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, assistant professor, 1998-2003, associate professor of political science, 2003—, social sciences and humanities, vice-chair, 2003-04, chair, 2004-05. Researcher, North-South Institute, 1996-98; member, Canadian Consortium on Asia-Pacific Security, 1996-2000, 2002; board member, Canadian Consortium on Asia-Pacific Security, 1997-99; member of grant selection committee, U.S. Institute of Peace.

MEMBER:

American Political Science Association, Association of Asian Studies, Canadian Political Science Association.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Procter & Gamble award for leadership, 1986; Alexander Mackenzie scholarship, 1986-87; Mackenzie King scholarship and Maurice Goldenberg memorial scholarship, both 1987; John Foster Dulles award, 1988-89; Social Sciences and Humanities Research grants, 1988-93 and 1995-97; Council on Regional Studies grant and MacArthur Foundation Research grant, both 1992-93; Andrew W. Mellon dissertation fellowship, 1993-94; APSA Gabriel A. Almond award, 1996; Connaught grant, University of Toronto, 1998-2000; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Institutional grant, University of Toronto, 1998-2001; Information Technology Courseware Development grants, 1999-2000 and 2003-05; University of Toronto travel grant, 1999-2000; Social Sciences and Humanities research grant from Council of Canada, 2000-03; William L. Holland prize for outstanding article in Pacific Affairs magazine, 2003.

WRITINGS:

L'Indonésie: La Prévention des conflits ethniques, North-South Institute (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), 1997.

Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to books, including Managing Change in Southeast Asian Communities: Local Identities, Global Connections, edited by G. Forth, S. Niessen, and J. De-Bernardi, Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies, 1995; Canadian Development Report 1999: Civil Society and Global Change, edited by Alison Van Rooy, North-South Institute (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), 1999; Good Governance and Conflict Resolution in Indonesia, edited by Andi Faisal Bakti, Logos Publishing (Jakarta, Indonesia), 2000; Democracy, Human Rights and Civil Society in Eastern Asia, edited by Amitav Acharya, B. Michael Frolic, and Richard Stubbs, Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2001; Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Asia, edited by Michael E. Brown and Sumit Ganguly, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2003; Development and Security in Southeast Asia, Volume III, edited by David Dewitt and Carolina Hernandez, Ashgate, 2003; and Democracy and Identity: Regimes and Ethnicity in East and Southeast Asia, edited by Susan J. Henders, Lexington Books, (New York, NY), 2004. Contributor to periodicals, including Pacific Affairs, Asian Survey, and Comparative Politics.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jacques Bertrand is a Canadian-based political science professor in the field of emerging democracies in Southeast Asia. Bertrand has concentrated his research on Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, but his is a cross-regional approach incorporating research and case studies from other countries that are in various stages of democratization. Of particular interest to Bertrand is the status of ethnic and religious minorities in nascent democracies and how these minorities' special interests are addressed, or whether indeed minority concerns are addressed. In his book Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia, Bertrand draws upon nearly a decade's worth of study to illustrate the successes, partial accomplishments, and failures of minority groups in their attempts to find inclusion in Indonesia's young democracy.

Bertrand's studies of Indonesia are timely in that, as a large Muslim nation, Indonesia can serve as a model for what may happen as other Islamic countries ease toward democracy. On his University of Toronto Web site, Bertrand noted that some of the democracies in Southeast Asia have transitioned into "hybrid regimes" that accept "new authoritarian forms within democratic institutional contexts." Especially using Indonesia as a benchmark, he has sought to understand how emerging authoritarianism can coexist with democratic initiatives—or if it will undermine fragile democratic governments. According to Bertrand, "Indonesia offers a potentially strong model for democratic and moderate politics in the Muslim world."

Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia explores the various tactics used by regional, religious, and ethnic groups to gain political clout during the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998. As Indonesia moved from dictatorship to democracy, minority groups felt emboldened to pursue their best interests, even if those interests sparked riots or separatist movements. According to Edward Aspinall in Pacific Affairs, Bertrand's book surveys an array of local problems in Indonesia "within a single explanatory framework." The reviewer further suggested that Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia "is based on a very precisely enunciated central argument grounded in national-level dynamics."

A country as populous as Indonesia consists of many groups united within themselves by special ambitions. Of particular interest to Bertrand is the possibility of democratic unification of these groups in the context of a moderate Islamic government. Aspinall considered Bertrand's study of Indonesia's democratic transformation a "considerable achievement," concluding that Bertrand "is able to provide a study of ethnic conflict in Indonesia that is both an excellent introduction for students and a starting point for future development in the field."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

East Asia: An International Quarterly, summer, 2006, Allen Wittenborn, review of Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia, p. 111.

International Journal of Constitutional Law, October, 2007, "Indonesia's Quasi-federalist Approach: Accommodation amid Strong Integrationist Tendencies," p. 576.

Pacific Affairs, spring, 2006, Edward Aspinall, review of Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia, p. 151.