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.

Is it time for the U.S to invade Burma/Myanmar ?

Written by Aris Heru Utomo 

Is it time to invade Burma? Actually the title in TIME should be “Is it time for the U.S to invade Burma? Since only the U.S have capabilities in leading invasion to other countries for a long time periode. Right now the U.S have theirown fleets in the Southeast Asia region and ready to deploy its troops in very short time.

Back to the question, I agree with the opinon of the majority of respondents in a poll counducted by TIME. Almost 72% of the 5857 respondents (as of 13 May, 01.A.M) says no to the option to invade Myanmar to distibute humanitarian aid. The Bush Administration itself has so far rejected the idea and prefer to have permission of Myanmar government.