Professor Karl Hack

Professional biography

I am a Professor of Asian and Imperial History, and have previously been Head of School, Head of History, and Chair of A326 Empire 1492-1975, A328 Empires, and for production of A329 The Making of Welsh History. Other posts have included being Chair of the History Department's Research Strategy Group, and Director of the Ferguson Research Centre for African and Asian Studies (2010-15). Prior to joining the Open University in 2006 I spent a decade at the Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore, working with schools, on heritage sites such as the Johore Battery, and reviewing the national history curriculum. Many projects, incuding an oral history programme, were undertaken with my colleague Kevin Blackburn. At its height we had over 500 students a year doing oral history. In 2006, I was enticed away from the tropics by the chance to help produce the Open University's new module on Empires. I found this chance to make empire come alive for several hundred students a year irresistible, and moved to Oxford with my family and our Singapore rescue dog.

Research interests

Funded Research Projects
2008-10 British Academy funded project entitled ‘New sources and perspectives on the Asian Cold War’. 2012-14 British Academy grant for a project on violence and decolonisation. 2016-20 AHRC collaborative studentship shared with the Imperial War Museum.

Thematic interests:
Decolonisation, insurgency, empire port cities, insurgent and anti-colonial perspectives, justice in decolonising and postcolonial situations, and intelligence and subversion. I have interviewed ex-insurgents up to the level of party Secretary-General, and recently completed a major history of the Malayan Emergency and its legacies and an international collaboration on Western Military Power and the Transformation of Asia.

Geographical interests:
Empire east of India, and Southeast Asia historical to contemporary; British Empire in general for comparative research on insurgency, port cities, and decolonisation.

Research students
Previous theses completed include Jane Berney, ‘The Contagious Diseases Ordinances of Hong Kong’ (2013) and Richard Duckett, ‘Special Operations Executive in Burma’ (2015),. Recent theses include Thomas Probert on the impact of counteirnsurgency in Malaya on British forces (2020) and Sam Aylett on the Museum of London and Empire (2020).

Public Engagement and Impact

Television and radio
In 2010-2012 I was academic consultant for the BBC series Empire, a major five-part series telling the story of the British Empire in a new, thematic way, and wrote the free wallchart on ‘Selling the Empire’ (download free here), of which more than 50,000 were requested and an online series of lectures on Selling Empire. In 2013 I was interviewed for Radio 4s Terror Through Time series, appeared on Channel News Asia, and did further media work on the SAS in Malaya, and on conflict memory, and I have been interviewed for several other television productions.

Podcasts. 'The Malayan Emergency' with Phil Wang, Imperial War Museum 'Conflict of Interest', Series 2: https://www.iwm.org.uk/iwm-institute/conflict-of-interest/series-two, April 2022.

Military and Foreign Policy
I have spoken at the Royal United Services Institute, provided an article for their website in 2009, and contributed to the Small Wars Journal. I have given papers at events open to military practitioners and the public in the UK, USA, Malaysia, and Singapore, and worked with military museums.

Public Memory and Commemoration
I have been interviewed for the National Museum of Singapore History Gallery, and publish on war memory. On 16 February 2012 I addressed ‘The Battle for Singapore’ event for more than 200 students and public, at Singapore’s Supreme Court. I testified as expert historical witness on communists in the case of Mohamad Sabu versus Utusan Malaysia, in the Penang High Court, Malaysia, and partnered the Imperial War Museum for a collaborative doctoral studentship.

Select Publications:

Books

Karl Hack, The Malayan Emergency: Revolution and counterinsurgency at the end of empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, December 2021).

Karl Hack, with El Mechat, Marc Frey, Arnaud Nanta, Solofo Randrianja and Jean-Marc Regnault sous la direction de Pierre Brocheux, Les Decolonisations au XXe Siecle: Le Fin Des Empires Européens et Japonais (Paris: Colin Armand: 2012).

Karl Hack and Kevin Blackburn, War Memory and the Making of Modern Malaysia and Singapore (Singapore: NUS Press, 2012).

Karl Hack and Jean-Louis Margolin (eds.) with Karine Delaye, Singapore from Temasek to the 21st Century: Reinventing the Global City (Singapore: NUS Press, 2010).

Karl Hack and Kevin Blackburn (eds.), Forgotten Captives in Japanese Occupied Asia (London: Routledge, 2008, paperback and ebook 2009).

Karl Hack and Tobias Rettig (eds.), Colonial Armies in Southeast Asia (London: Routledge, 2006, paperback and ebook 2008).

Karl Hack and Kevin Blackburn, Did Singapore Have to Fall? (London: Routledge, 2004, paperback 2005).

C.C. Chin and Karl Hack (eds.), Dialogues with Chin Peng: New Light on the Malayan Communist Party (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2004).

Karl Hack, Defence and Decolonisation in Southeast Asia (Richmond: Curzon, 2001).

Special Editions

Karl Hack (Joint editor with Sibylle Scheipers), Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 43, 4 (November 2015), on 'Hostile Populations'.

Karl Hack (Special Editor), Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 39, 4 (November 2011), on ‘Negotiating with the enemy’.

Karl Hack (Joint editor with Geoff Wade), ‘Asian Cold War Symposium’, special edition of the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 40, 3 (October 2009).

Articles and Chapters

Karl Hack, 'Unfinished Decolonisation', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth Studies, 47, 5 (2019), 818-50.

Karl Hack, ' "Devils that suck the blood of the Malayan People": The Case for Post-Revisionist Analysis of Counterinsurgency Violence, War in History 25, 2 (2018).

Karl Hack, 'Detention, Deportation and Resettlement: British Counteinrsurgency and Malaya's Rural Chinese, 1948-1960', Journal of Imperial and Commowenalth History 43, 5 (2015), 611-40.

Karl Hack, ‘ “Between two terrors”: People’s History and the Malayan Emergency’, in Hannah Gurman (ed.), A People’s History of Insurgency (New York: Free Press, 2013).

Karl Hack, ‘Framing the History of Singapore’, in Nicholas Tarling (ed.), Studying Singapore's Past: C.M. Turnbull and the History of Modern Singapore (Singapore: NUS Press, 2012).

Teaching interests

At the Open University (2006-), I have provided a wide range of teaching, mainly but not exclusively on extra-European and world history.

Course team chair for presentation of A326 Empire 1492-1975 from 2009-16, having been co-chair during production. Author of units on Analysing empire, decolonisaition in India, Sex and empire, and empire overview and empire impacts.
Chair for produciton of a new Empire 1400 to present module over 2021-2023.
Chair for the production of A329: The Making of Welsh History, using innovative new direct authoring methods.
Course team member for A312 Total War and Social Change: Europe 1914-1955, and AXR312, the related summer school.
Contributing author on AD281 Introducing Global Heritage.
Contributing author on A327 Europe 1914-89: War, Peace, Modernity.
Contributing author on A225 The British Isles and the Modern World, 1789-1914,.
Course team member on the presentation team for A825 and A826, the taught and dissertation modules on the M.A in Local and Regional History

For OpenLearn, I provided the A326 taster material 'How do Empires Work'.

At the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (1996-2006), I taught a broad range of history and social studies modules, including on Singapore history, Singapore studies, Malaysian History, Southeast Asian history, European history, Great Power Relations, and Political Thought.

Research groups

Name	Type	Parent Unit
Empire and Postcolonial Studies Research Group	Group	Faculty of Arts
The Ferguson Centre for African and Asian Studies	Centre	Faculty of Arts

Externally funded projects

The impact of participating in British counterinsurgency campaigns, 1945-1997, on British armed forces personnel

Role	Start date	End date	Funding source
Lead	01 Oct 2014	30 Sep 2019	AHRC Arts & Humanities Research Council
Research questions will revolve around the twin themes of perceptions of the enemy/populace, and experiences of violence: 1. What were attitudes towards combatants, general populace, ‘suspect’ populations and areas, and prisoners and detainees? How did these change during each campaign, and across campaigns? 2. What was the impact of: rules of engagement, past ‘repertoires of action’, and tendencies towards ‘rough justice’ and other tropes. 3. What policies, environments, attitudes and enemy approaches tended to fuel excessive violence, and which to limit violence in the first place, or to reverse the tide of excessive violence? 4. How did British troops perceive ‘race’ and culture, and how did this change across 1945-97, given changes in attitudes to race and multiculturalism in the UK? 5. How did troops experience and deal with violence and trauma, both as its authors and its victims? Applying these questions across 3-5 of the campaigns listed below will provide an overarching picture of troop mentality or ‘pysche’ and its changes. 1. Malayan Emergency: a rural Cold War campaign against an enemy perceived as ideological, with strong elements both of ‘counter-terror’ and of soft power and ‘winning hearts and minds’. 2. Mau Mau: a rural campaign with the enemy perceived as ‘non-rational’/primitive/tribal. 3. Cyprus: a predominantly urban campaign against an ethnic nationalist enemy. 4. Northern Ireland: a largely urban campaign when human rights and civil rights expectations were increasing. 5. Afghanistan: at an epilogue level, for how this echoes earlier trends or not, raising the question of continuities/discontinuities into the future. Most of the above campaigns have been the cause of major court cases raising the possibility of in-depth study and comparison of particular incidents. All can be studied using a blend of soldiers’ diaries (IWM, Army Museum, select regimental museums), oral history records, and the National Archives. Outputs: 1. A thesis of up to 100,000 words, with publication potential in entirety or parts. 2. Web output. The student should develop skills in bridging the archive/museum, academic world, and the public, by providing working papers, documents and commentary on topical parts of their work online, including through The OU’s unique OpenLearn platform, and its Research Centres.

Publications

Journal articles

[Book Review] A Global History of Relocation in Counterinsurgency Warfare by Edward J. Erickson (ed.) (2021-10-05)
Hack, Karl
Journal of Contemporary History, 56(4) (pp. 1203-1205)

Unfinished Decolonisation and Globalisation (2019-10-30)
Hack, Karl
Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 47(5) (pp. 818-850)

‘Devils that suck the blood of the Malayan People’: The Case for Post-Revisionist Analysis of Counter-insurgency Violence (2018-04-01)
Hack, Karl
War in History, 25(2) (pp. 202-226)

Detention, Deportation and Resettlement: British Counterinsurgency and Malaya’s Rural Chinese, 1948–60 (2015-12-01)
Hack, Karl
Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 43(5) (pp. 611-640)

Everyone lived in fear: Malaya and the British way of counter-insurgency' (2012-12)
Hack, Karl
Small Wars & Insurgencies, 23(4-5) (pp. 671-699)

Negotiating with the Malayan Communist Party, 1948-89 (2011-11)
Hack, Karl
Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 39(4) (pp. 607-632)

Between terror and talking, the place of 'negotiation' in colonial conflict (2011-11)
Hack, Karl
Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 39(4) (pp. 539-549)

Setting the record straight on the Malayan counterinsurgency strategy: interview with Karl Hack (2011-02)
Hack, Karl
Small Wars Journals, 7(2)

Extracting counterinsurgency lessons: The Malayan Emergency and Afghanistan (2009-11)
Hack, Karl
History on Rusi.org, Expand

The origins of the Southeast Asian Cold War (2009-10)
Hack, Karl and Wade, Geoff
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 40(3) (pp. 441-448)

The Malayan Emergency as counter-insurgency paradigm (2009-06)
Hack, Karl
Journal of Strategic Studies, 32(3) (pp. 383-414)

The origins of the Asian Cold War: Malaya 1948 (2009)
Hack, Karl
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 40(3) (pp. 471-496)

Biar mati anak: Jangan mati adat [Better your children die than your traditions]: Locally raised forces as a barometer for imperialism and decolonisaiton in British South East Asia, 1874-2001 (2002-11-01)
Hack, Karl A.
South East Asia Research, 10(3) (pp. 245-275)

Iron claws on Malaya: the historiography of the Malayan emergency (1999)
Hack, Karl
Journal of Southeast Asian Stdies, 30(1) (pp. 99-125)

Authored books

The Malayan Emergency: Revolution and Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire (2021-12-16)
Hack, Karl
Cambridge Military Histories
Publisher : Cambridge University Press | Published : Cambridge

Les Décolonisations au XX Siècle: La Fin des Empires Européens et Japonais (2012-07-04)
Hack, Karl; Brocheux, Pierre; El Mechat, Samia; Frey, Marc; Nanta, Arnaud; Randrianja, Solofo and Regnault, Jean-Marc
ISBN : 978-2-200-24945-8 | Publisher : Armand Colin | Published : Paris

War Memory and the Making of Modern Malaysia and Singapore (2012-02)
Hack, Karl and Blackburn, Kevin
ISBN : 978-9971-69-599-6 | Publisher : NUS Press | Published : Singapore

Did Singapore have to fall? Churchill and the impregnable fortress (2005)
Blackburn, Kevin and Hack, Karl
ISBN : 0 415 374146 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London, UK

Defence and decolonisation in southeast Asia: Britain, Malaya and Singapore, 1941-1968 (2001)
Hack, Karl
ISBN : 0 7007 1303 4 | Publisher : Curzon | Published : Richmond, UK

Book chapters

Grand Strategy and Its Layers: Britain and Southeast Asia, 1946–1954 (2022-07-18)
Hack, Karl
In: Farrell, Brian P.; Long, S.R. Joey and Ulbrich, David J. eds. From Far East to Asia Pacific: Great Powers and Grand Strategy 1900-1954. De Gruyter Studies in Military History (pp. 183-214)
ISBN : 9783110718713 | Publisher : De Gruyter Oldenbourg | Published : Berlin/Boston

We Meet Again: Britain and Singapore 1945-1946 (2019-01)
Hack, Karl
In: Koh, Tommy and Wightman, Scott eds. 200 years of Singapore and the United Kingdom (pp. 118-125)
ISBN : 978-981-48-2717-1 | Publisher : Straits Times Press | Published : Singapore

The Art of Counterinsurgency: Phase Analysis with Primary Reference to Malaya (1948-60), and Secondary Reference to Kenya (1952-60) (2017)
Hack, Karl
In: Thomas, Martin and Curless, Gareth eds. Decolonization and Conflict: Colonial Comparisons and Legacies (pp. 177-196)
ISBN : 978-1-4742-5038-2 | Publisher : Bloomsbury | Published : London

Tropical transitions in colonial counter-insurgency: From Malayan Emergency to post-colonial partnership (2015)
Hack, Karl
In: Johnson, Robert and Clack, Timothy eds. At the End of Military Intervention: Historical, Theoretical, and Applied Approaches to Transition, Handover, and Withdrawal (pp. 61-85)
ISBN : 9780198725015 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford

The Malayan Emergency: British Counterinsurgency Phases and the Triumph of Geo-demographic Control, 1948-60 (2015)
Hack, Karl
In: Fremont-Barnes, Gregory ed. A History of Counterinsurgency: From South Africa to Algeria, 1900 to 1954 (pp. 125-176)
ISBN : 9781440804243 | Publisher : ABC-Clio | Published : Santa Barbara, California

Malaya - Between Two Terrors: "People's History" and the Malayan Emergency (2013)
Hack, Karl
In: Gurman, Hannah ed. Hearts and Minds: A People's History of Insurgency (pp. 17-49)
ISBN : 9781595588258 | Publisher : The Free Press | Published : New York

Framing Singapore's History (2012)
Hack, Karl
In: Tarling, Nicholas ed. Studying Singapore's Past: C.M. Turnbull and the History of Modern Singapore (pp. 17-64)
ISBN : 9789971696467 | Publisher : NUS Press | Published : Singapore

Decolonization and violence in Southeast Asia: crises of authority and identity (2012)
Hack, Karl
In: Bogaerts, Els and Raben, Remco eds. Beyond Empire and Nation: Decolonizing Societies in Africa and Asia, 1930s-1970s (pp. 137-166)
ISBN : 9789067182898 | Publisher : KITLV | Published : Leiden

Singapore: reinventing the global city (2010)
Hack, Karl and Margolin, Jean-Louis
In: Hack, Karl; Margolin, Jean-Louis and Delaye, Karine eds. Singapore fromTemasek to the 21st Century (pp. 3-36)
ISBN : 978-9971-69-515-6 | Publisher : National University of Singapore Press | Published : Singapore

The Malayan trajectory in Singapore's history (2010)
Hack, Karl
In: Hack, Karl; Margolin, Jean-Louis and Delaye, Karine eds. Singapore from Temasek to the 21st Century (pp. 243-291)
ISBN : 978-9971-69-515-6 | Publisher : National University of Singapire Press | Published : Singapore

Remaking Singapore 1990-2004: from disciplinarian development to bureaucratic proxy democracy (2010)
Hack, Karl
In: Hack, Karl; Margolin, Jean-Louis and Delaye, Karine eds. Singapore from Temasek to the 21st Century (pp. 345-383)
ISBN : 978-9971-69-515-6 | Publisher : National University of singpaore Publishing | Published : Singapore

The long march to peace of the Malayan Communist Party in southern Thailand (2008)
Hack, Karl
In: Monetesano, Michael J and Jory, Patrick eds. Thai South and Malay North: Ethnic Interactions on a Plural Peninsula (pp. 173-200)
ISBN : 9789971694111 | Publisher : National University of Singapore Press | Published : Singapore

The Bridge on the River Kwai and King Rat: protest and ex-prisoner of war memory in Britain and Australia (2007-12-14)
Hack, Karl and Blackburn, Kevin
In: Hack, Karl and Blackburn, Kevin eds. Forgotten Captives in Japanese Occupied Asia: National Memories and Forgotten Captivities. Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia (pp. 147-171)
ISBN : 415426359 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, Oxon., UK and New York, NY, USA

Japanese-occupied Asia from 1941 to 1945: one occupier, many captivities and memories (2007-12-14)
Hack, Karl and Blackburn, Kevin
In: Hack, Karl and Blackburn, Kevin eds. Forgotten Captives in Japanese Occupied Asia: National Memories and Forgotten Captivities. Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia (pp. 1-20)
ISBN : 415426359 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, Oxon., UK and New York, NY, USA

Imperial systems of power, colonial forces and the making of modern Southeast Asia (2006)
Hack, Karl and Rettig, Tobias
In: Hack, Karl and Rettig, Tobias eds. Colonial Armies in Southeast Asia. Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia (pp. 3-36)
ISBN : 9780415486354 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London

Demography and domination in Southeast Asia (2006)
Hack, Karl and Rettig, Tobias
In: Hack, Karl and Rettig, Tobias eds. Colonial Armies in Southeast Asia. Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia (pp. 39-73)
ISBN : 9780415486354 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London

Imperialism and decolonisation in Southeast Asia: colonial forces and British world power post colonial analyses and residues (2006)
Hack, Karl
In: Rettig, Tobias and Hack, Karl eds. Colonial Armies in Southeast Asia. Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia (pp. 239-266)
ISBN : 978-0-415-33413-6 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London

The Malayan Emergency (2004)
Hack, Karl and Chin, C. C.
In: Hack, Karl and Chin, C. C. eds. Dialogues with Chin Peng: New Light on the Malayan Communist Party (pp. 3-37)
ISBN : 9971692872 | Publisher : Singapore University Press | Published : Singapore

Communist Policy and Support: 1948-57 (2004)
Hack, Karl
In: Hack, Karl and Chin, C. C. eds. Dialogues with Chin Peng: New Light on the Malayan Communist Party (pp. 295-301)
ISBN : 9971692872 | Publisher : Singapore University Press | Published : Singapore

From Baling to Merdeka: 1955-60 (2004)
Hack, Karl
In: Hack, Karl and Chin, C. C. eds. Dialogues with Chin Peng: New Light on the Malayan Communist Party (pp. 306-316)
ISBN : 9971692872 | Publisher : Singapore University Press | Published : Singapore

Theories and approaches to British decolonization in southeast Asia (2003-08)
Hack, Karl
In: Frey, Marc; Preussen, Ronald W and Tan, Tai Yong eds. The Transformation of Southeast Asia (pp. 105-126)
ISBN : 978-0-7656-1139-0 | Publisher : M.E. Sharpe | Published : New York, NY U.S.

Edited books

Singapore from Temasek to the 21st Century: Reinventing the Global City (2010-09)
Hack, Karl and Margolin, Jean-Louis eds.
ISBN : 978-9971-69-515-6 | Publisher : National University of Singapore Publishing | Published : Singapore

Forgotten Captives in Japanese-Occupied Asia (2008)
Hack, Karl and Blackburn, Kevin eds.
Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia
ISBN : 415426359 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon

Colonial armies in southeast Asia (2006)
Hack, Karl and Rettig, Tobias eds.
Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia
ISBN : 9780415334136 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London, UK

Dialogues with Chin Peng: New light on the Malayan communist party (2004)
Chin, C. C. and Hack, Karl eds.
ISBN : 9971 69 287 2 | Publisher : Singapore University Press | Published : Singapore

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