Role of Indonesia in ASEAN

Agreed with the ASEAN Charter on December 15, 2008, the ASEAN into a regional organization of an entirely new, with a clear rule of law and have legal personality.

Equipped motto one vision, one identity, one community, ASEAN continued to move toward the establishment of an ASEAN Community 2015.

The opening of the ASEAN Charter explicitly mentions public commitment (We, the Peoples) ASEAN member countries to accelerate the establishment of the ASEAN Community based on three pillars, namely political cooperation and security, economic cooperation, and socio-cultural cooperation.

64th Indonesian Independece Day

Tomorrow morning, 17 Auguts 2009,  Indonesia will celebrate its 64th national indepence day. Hope that Indonesia will be better in the next future. More prosperious dan have dignity in the world. Merdeka !!!

Linggajati Agreement: First Achievement for Indonesian Diplomacy

Written Aris Heru Utomo

The Linggajati Agreement was a key political accord in the struggle of Indonesia for Independence. When the Republic of Indonesia proclaimed its independence on August 17, 1945, right after Japanese surrender to the Allies, Colonialist Government of Dutch tried to regain control of the former East Indies by sending more troops to attack Indonesian strongholds. It was noticed that between 1945 and 1949 they undertook two military actions.

Indonesia’s Foreign Policy and the Meaning of ASEAN

by Jusuf Wanandi

Jusuf Wanandi is vice chair of the Board of Trustees of Indonesia’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Foundation and is a member of the (unrelated) Pacific Forum CSIS Board of Governors. This article originally appeared in The Jakarta Post.

 

It is an accepted wisdom that in international relations every nation pursues its own national interest. This notion is based on state sovereignty, the basis of relations between states since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.

However, this principle has been eroded due to regional and international rules and institutions at the multilateral level, and civil societies and NGOs at the sub-national ones. Nonetheless, national interest and state sovereignty are still the central part of international relations, and it can be argued that globalization pressures, new threats of global/regional terrorism and threats of a non-conventional nature, such as pandemics, energy security and the environment, all will make the role of the state more important.

Anambas Expedition: Diplomacy through Scientific Mission

Written by Aris Heru Utomo 

In the 1990’s, political tension in the South China Sea was high. The dispute territorial claims in the South China Sea remain a dangerous source of potential conflict in the absence of preventive measures to forestall a military or political crisis. Six claimant countries, Brunei Darussalam, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam, have claims in this region and some of them have sent their military force to the region.

Considering this political situation, in 1990 Indonesia convened a first workshop to manage potential conflicts in the South China Sea. Regardless of the territorial disputes, Indonesia tried to find out ways to manage potential conflict and to find an area or areas in which everyone could agree to co-operate, no matter how small or how insignificant it might seem to be.