Russian hostilities in Ukraine are preventing grain from leaving the “breadbasket of the world” and making food more expensive across the globe, triggering food crisis, inflation, hunger and political instability in developing countries. This global wheat shortage is also affecting Indonesia. Indonesia’s complete dependency on imported wheat has triggered a vulnerability for its food secu…
Referring to Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, the functions of a diplomatic mission consist, inter alia, of representing, protecting, negotiating, reporting, and reporting. Then, some countries including Indonesia add one more function of a diplomatic mission which is managing, particularly managing the internal affairs of the mission. The Foreign Services Officers or Diploma…
Digital transformation is two sides of the same coin. As the world is experiencing a rapid pace of adoption of new technologies and their increasing role in efforts to achieve sustainable development, there is also a growing concern about how the digital divides among countries may further deepen the existing global economic gaps between the haves and the have-nots. While it is widely recognize…
In an effort to combat deforestation and promote sustainable forest development, FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade) has become one of the most prominent initiatives. Indonesia is among the first partner countries to sign a FLEGT VPA with the EU. It is important to note that Indonesia is the first country in the world to successfully implement and issue FLEGT licenses through th…
The principle of reciprocity serves as the guiding principle in diplomatic relations, including those involving socio-cultural affairs. Japan is one of the few countries with schools in Indonesia, and vice versa. However, there is a difference between the treatment of Indonesian teachers in Japan and Japanese teachers in Indonesia in terms of the facilitation of ID Card, which is critical for …
The book brings together essays by Thai specialists as well as Western scholars on pivotal topics connected to Thailand's current legitimacy crisis. It begins with a lively narrative of major events and in subsequent chapters covers the politicization of the Khao Phra Wihan (Preah Vihear) temple issue. The People's Alliance for Democracy and its "New Politics". The politicization of the Thai me…
When George W. Bush campaigned for the White House, he was such a novice in foreign policy that he couldn't name the president of Pakistan and momentarily suggested he thought the Taliban was a rock-and-roll band. But he relied upon a group called the Vulcans—an inner circle of advisers with a long, shared experience in government, dating back to the Nixon, Ford, Reagan and first Bush adminis…
For Fareed Zakaria, the great story of our times is ‘the rise of the rest’–the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa and Kenya, which is generating a New global landscape. Global power is shifting, and wealth and innovation are bubbling up in unexpected places: the tallest buildings, biggest dams, top-selling movies and most advanced mobile phones are all bei…
In the post-Cold War world, U.S. Asian relations remain central to U.S. policy. Fault lines in the Taiwan Straits and on the Korean peninsula require the daily vigilance of U.S. and Asian policymakers. Asia's continued recovery from the 1997 financial crisis depends in part upon the health of the American economy. And as domestic political change accelerates across Asia, relations must be recal…