This book examines the changes in Indonesian foreign policy during the 21st century as it seeks to position itself as a great power in the Indo-Pacific region. The rise of 21st-century Indonesia is becoming a permanent fixture in both the domestic and global discourses. Though there has been an increasing level of discussion on Indonesia’s emerging power status, there has been little discussion on how the country is debating and signalling its new-found status. This book combines the insights of both neo-classical realism and social identity theory to discuss a reset in an emerging Indonesia’s foreign policy during the 21st century while emphasizing domestic drivers and constraints of its international behaviour. There are three key organizing components of the book – emerging power, status signalling and the Indo-Pacific region. The Indo-Pacific region constitutes a spatial framing of the book; the emerging power provides an analytical category to explain Indonesia’s changing international status; and status signalling explains multiple facets of international behaviour through which the country is projecting its new status. Though leaders are adding different styles and characteristics to the rising Indonesia narrative, there are a few unmistakable overarching trends that highlight an increasing correlation between the country’s rising power and growing ambition in international behaviour. This book is built around four key signalling strategies of Indonesia as an emerging power – expanded regional canvas, power projection, leadership projection, and quest for great power parity. They represent Indonesia’s growing desire for a status-consistent behaviour, its response to the prevailing strategic uncertainty in the Indo-Pacific region and its attempt to advance its strategic interests. This book will be of much interest to students of South-East Asian politics, strategic studies, international diplomacy, security studies and IR in general.

David C. Kang tells an often overlooked story about East Asia's 'comprehensive security', arguing that American policy towards Asia should be based on economic and diplomatic initiatives rather than military strength.

This book examines the state of China’s grand strategy in the 21st century, including political, military and economic factors. Over the past two decades, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has attained the second highest gross domestic product in the world, taken a leadership role in East Asian regional organisations and substantially improved its military capabilities. Each of these developments – and many others like them – have attracted attention from scholars, journalists and policymakers. Less frequently acknowledged – but perhaps of greater significance – is the impressive congruence of Beijing’s accomplishments. This book highlights how the PRC’s successes support one another and pave the way for future accomplishments, and how these successes seem to be achieved in an unusually coherent and purposeful way. As Beijing’s relations with the rest of the world continue to evolve, with events ranging from the ongoing global economic crisis to the turbulence in China’s own stock market which may bring the PRC’s government under pressure to re-order its priorities, this book assesses China’s grand strategy and long-term approach to national policy. It identifies the political, military and economic instruments it is likely to use, the key challenges which it will face, and explores the implications for the global community. This book will be of great interest to students of Chinese politics, foreign policy, strategic studies, international security and IR in general.

This book provides a comprehensive study of Indonesia's contemporary foreign policy engagement with Africa, highlighting the archipelago’s recent reawakening to the continent. It explores thoughts on Afro-Asian relations in general and their future in the changing geopolitical context. It provides a vision of Indonesia’s foreign policy and political situation at the highest level of leadership. It places Indonesia in a multi-comparison context, which helps us reconsider Indonesia today and widens our views on Indonesia’s needs to be better known through new perspectives and voices able to better convey the realities of its polity, aspirations, and complexities. It proposes, through the study of Indonesia’s African endeavour, to better grasp the contemporary Indonesian Zeitgeist and Weltanschauung. It also analyses the political power alliance formed by President Jokowi and former General Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, leading a state-led development through state capitalism, mobilising State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). The Bandung Conference host aspires to project its domestic development achievements towards Africa, focusing on Africa for Africa and not merely as part of a sometimes-abstract Afro-Asian discourse. Nonetheless, Afro-Asianism continues to be mobilised to facilitate market penetration and serve domestic interests. The book shows how Indonesia’s foreign policy toward Africa relates to domestic political contestation and consolidation, political legacy and commodity-based industrial policy, and Chinese and “China in Africa” networks and ideational influence, foremost among other networks of influence in the Jokowi era. The book also underlines how Indonesia’s knowledge production and academic deficiencies negatively impact its foreign policy capabilities, notably as a potential robust alternative partner for Africa. It will be beneficial for students, academicians, researchers, and diplomats.

The book offers a vivid analysis of the new geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific in terms of big power rivalry between the US-China and country-wise perspectives situating largely within the late 2000s and culminates with the developments of the COVID-19 period. The great power shift, marked by the rise of China and the relative decline of the US, poses a serious challenge to the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region and the world order in general. Ironically, the play of realism in the region is stymied by broad partnerships of key countries that utilise the liberal approaches of cooperation with both rivals – the US and China. The book captures the mosaic of stakeholders – rivals the US and China along with Russia; other QUAD members Australia, India, and Japan; key ASEAN members, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam; vulnerable states in East Asia, viz. Taiwan and South Korea; and groupings including the ASEAN and QUAD – that constitute the new world politics of the Indo-Pacific. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of Indo-Pacific studies, global politics, and international relations.

This book introduces the editors’ new concept of “Awkward Powers”. By undertaking a critical re-examination of the state of International Relations theorising on the changing nature of the global power hierarchy, it draws attention to a number of countries that fit awkwardly into existing but outdated categories such as “great power” and “middle power”. It argues that conceptual categories pertaining to the apex of the international hierarchy have become increasingly unsatisfactory, and that new approaches focusing on such “Awkward Powers” can both rectify shortcomings on power theorising whilst shining a much-needed theoretical spotlight on significant but understudied states. The book’s contributors examine a broad range of empirical case studies, including both established and rising powers across a global scale to illustrate our conceptual claims. Through such a novel process, we argue that a better appreciation of the de facto international power hierarchy in the 21st century can be achieved.

This book examines how major powers in the Indo-Pacific region cope with and respond to the potential order transition against the background of the strategic competition between the US and China. The world is in a crisis and the liberal international order is at stake with the Covid pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war indicating a possible order transition in the international system. The Indo Pacific region has become the focal point of intense competition between the United States and China. Against this backdrop, the chapters in this volume explore how policy elites in the area have attempted to address the potential order transition, and how different states - including great and middle powers - have been employing various strategies to deal with the security and economic challenges in the region. The complexity of the international order has made this order transition particularly challenging, making it a difficult time for both state leaders and scholars alike. It is the best of times, and it is the worst of times. This book provides an academic platform for graduate students, scholars and policy experts to approach this topic from different theoretical and national perspectives. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of The Pacific Review.

This book offers a unique analysis of how political representatives construct ideas about the nation in contemporary Indonesian politics. In their struggle to define what the authors call the ‘national narrative’, would-be national leaders seek to develop a story about the nation’s past, present and future. These stories feature a unique plot, set of characters, and a moral that the political narrator hopes will resonate. In contemporary Indonesia, the authors assess two prominent national narratives: the technocratic and populist national narratives. The book concludes with an analysis that considers other potential sources of ideas about the nation, as well as the potential implications for domestic politics and Indonesian grand strategy.

This book aims to explore and contextualize G20 rising powers’ increasing role in international development from a comprehensive and multidimensional perspective. This book will scrutinize the G20 rising powers’ evolving role as international development actors around three research questions: 1) How do we contextualize and locate G20 rising powers as emerging actors in international development? 2) What are the main contributions, trends and limits of G20 rising powers in South-South Cooperation? 3) Does G20 rising powers’ active involvement in international development support their foreign policy objectives and challenge the international development order? Based on these three, interrelated research questions, this cluster of chapters is structured as follows: The first part, elaborated under the first research question, focuses on the historical development and current dynamics of (G20) rising powers’ evolving actorness in international development to assess their main motivations, ambitions and instruments. The second part examines the main contributions, trends and limits of G20 rising powers in South-South Cooperation. The third part delves into an assessment of the linkage between G20 rising powers’ active involvement in international development and their foreign policies.

The past three decades since the end of the Cold War have been a time of remarkable change for Southeast Asia. Long seen as an arena for superpower rivalry, Southeast Asia is increasingly coming into its own by locating itself at the forefront of regional integration initiatives that involve not only the states of the region, but major external powers such as the United States, China, India, Japan, and Australia. Extensively updated and revised in light of these changes and developments, this fifth edition of Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Southeast Asia remains indispensable. This new edition starts with profiles of each Southeast Asian country, before providing over 500 alphabetically arranged individual entries, each containing detailed accounts and analyses of major episodes and treaties, political parties and institutions, civil society movements, and regional and international organizations. Biographies of significant political leaders and personalities, both past and present, are also provided. Entries are comprehensively cross-referenced, and an index by country directs readers to all entries concerning a particular country. The Dictionary concludes with an extensive bibliography that serves as a guide to further reading. An essential one-stop reference book, this book is an indispensable tool for all scholars and students of Asian politics and international affairs, and a vital resource for journalists, diplomats, policy makers, and others with an interest in the region.