This workshop seeks a better understanding of the nature of precolonial indigenous warfare across monsoon Asia. The objectives of the workshop are:

1. to better understand the role of warfare in indigenous society throughout monsoon Asia
2. to understand the ways in which European and Asian forms of warfare differed and why
3. to demonstrate that although forms of warfare within monsoon Asia were diverse, better developed research methodologies and paradigms can help to inform research across the regional divide

By bringing together scholars of various backgrounds, focusing on both South and Southeast Asia, we will pursue major issues regarding precolonial indigenous warfare across regional divides (South and Southeast Asia) and across the lines of source materials (between European sources and between European and indigenous sources).

This workshop also seeks to establish a more meaningful agenda for further research on indigenous warfare in monsoon Asia (South and Southeast Asia). We have identified several key areas for research on indigenous warfare:

• the different impact of warfare on state-building in the monsoon Asia context
• the ways in which warfare helps to structure society and how society (especially understandings of gender) determines the organization of warfare
• the relationship between culture and warfare, both locally and across monsoon Asia
• the special logistical challenges facing indigenous armies in a monsoon environment
• special ethnic approaches to warfare, wherein warfare plays a fundamental role in the formation of ethnic identities
• the techniques of warfare
• the origin and acquisition of new technologies of warfare
• the ways in which warfare crosses a variety of boundaries, whether geographical, political, social, or cultural