India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears on a screen to deliver a speech remotely as other leaders attend the 22nd ASEAN - India Summit during the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 26, 2025.

Connecting India and ASEAN's digital economy agreement

As ASEAN rewrites the rules of Southeast Asia’s digital economy with the DEFA, India must launch a dedicated two-track strategy to integrate cross-border tech and trade without compromising its regulatory sovereignty.

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China Shock 2.0 reshuffles winners and losers

China is trying to export its way out of a domestic slump, unleashing what many Western governments call a second "China shock." While this strategy is triggering trade fights abroad, it's also producing a new set of potential beneficiaries at home. ...

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Kowani’s dual leadership reflects Indonesia’s democratic malaise

What does the Kowani dual leadership debacle reflect about women’s rights, politics and democracy in Indonesia? ...

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The decoration for the 20th anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami stands in front of the main minaret of the Baiturrahman Mosque in Banda Aceh, Aceh on Dec. 25, 2024, the eve of the disaster's anniversary.

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When restraint became strategy: Indonesia’s long road to peace in Aceh

Today, Aceh's main struggle is no longer about surviving a war, but about building an economy that works, maintaining honest local government, and creating real opportunities for its people.

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Childhood nationalism: Students salute the national flag on July 27, 2026 during a ceremony at an elementary school in the fishing village of Torosiaje, Gorontalo.

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Independence proclamation: Sukarno in his own words

With two spare sentences on a modest Jakarta porch, Sukarno declared Indonesia’s independence and forged a revolutionary blueprint that sparked liberation movements across the globe.

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President Prabowo Subianto speaks on Sept. 23, 2025 during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City, the United States.

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Independence, peace and the power of diplomacy

Eighty-one years after proclaiming its independence, Indonesia has been fortunate to enjoy relative peace and stability, both at home and across its borders. But that achievement is something we can never afford to take for granted.

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True colors: Students of SDN Mojosongo 3 state elementary school in Surakarta, Central Java wash Red and White national flags on Aug. 7, 2026 ahead of the 81st anniversary of Indonesian independence.

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After 81 years of independence, our institutions must come of age

After 81 years of independence, how strong are the state institutions tasked with holding this nation together?

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A man runs past national flags of ASEAN member states on May 5 outside a media center in Cebu, the Philippines, ahead of the 48th ASEAN Summit.

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ASEAN needs a story that young people can own

ASEAN does not need to reinvent itself. It simply needs to communicate differently.

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A participant unfurls a red-and-white flag on Sunday while taking part in the Red and White Parade along Jl. Jenderal Sudirman in Bogor, West Java.

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A chief but unrecognized supporter of Indonesia’s independence

Neither Australia nor Indonesia has fully recognized the myriad ways Australia’s 16th prime minister Ben Chifley used his timely influence to end colonial rule.

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President Prabowo Subianto delivers his annual State of the Nation address on Aug. 15, 2025, ahead of the country's Independence Day in Jakarta.

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Indonesia at 81: Whose sovereignty are we celebrating?

What happens when the language used to resist external dependence starts shaping what counts as legitimate disagreement inside the republic itself?

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A man holds a handheld smartphone on July 15, 2026, displaying the icons of some of the major artificial intelligence LLMs, chatbots and generative AI apps, in Paris, France.

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The token economy requires collective data governance

Millions of people continuously generate the raw material on which AI is trained, yet almost none shares in the wealth it creates.

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Argentina's fans hold a banner reading “The Malvinas are Argentine“ on July 19 as they gather near the Obelisk after Argentina lost the FIFA World Cup final soccer match against Spain in Buenos Aires.

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Malvinas: The strength of a just cause

The Question of the Malvinas Islands embodies Argentina’s territorial integrity, oceanic projection, bicontinental identity, wealth and projection into the South Atlantic.

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Chinese Foreign Minster Wang Yi poses for a group photo with ASEAN foreign ministers during the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference with China on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Pasay, Metro Manila, on July 22, 2026.

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How China’s GDI can support ASEAN’s next phase of growth

Southeast Asian countries are likely to judge China's Global Development Initiative on its ability to address real development needs, produce visible benefits and complement existing ASEAN frameworks.

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Prospective passengers wait for the arrival of the Whoosh high-speed train on March 15 on the platform at Whoosh Padalarang Station in West Bandung regency, West Java.

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Whoosh debt is not gone, only moved around

The decision to move the consortium's stake to the fiscal authorities is effectively an admission that the domestic SOE structure has reached its limits.

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A worker monitors products for export at a packaging factory in Lianyungang, in China's eastern Jiangsu Province, on May 18, 2026.

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Is China really a beggar-thy-neighbor power?

When major economies are running at near full capacity, it is not clear that trade deficits should be a cause for concern, since they represent a transfer of purchasing power from surplus countries. Under the current circumstances, then, China’s widely criticized surpluses might as well be called enrich-thy-neighbor.

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A deforested area to be converted into a sugar cane plantation by PT Murni Nusantara Abadi, directly threatening the adjacent customary forest protected by the Kwipalo Clan, scars the landscape on March 17, 2025, in Mandiri Jagebob, Merauke regency, South Papua.

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The constitutional promise of indigenous peoples' bill

In practice, recognition that should represent the state’s respect for communities that have existed for generations can instead become an administrative mechanism determining whether a community is worthy of recognition.

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Japan's Crown Prince Fumihito (center) leaves with his wife Crown Princess Kiko (center, right) after visiting the Hagia Sofia Mosque in Istanbul, on Dec. 5, 2024.

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Japan’s complex and forgotten ties with Islam

A false rumor started in the early 20th century that the Japanese emperor would convert to Islam. It helped Japan build alliances with Muslims across Asia.

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Rector of Lambung Mangkurat University, Prof. Ahmad Alim Bachri, turns the tassel for the top graduates on July 3, 2024, at the faculty level at the ULM Auditorium, Banjarbaru, Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan.

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Hidden inequality in Indonesia’s new university accreditation system

Do we measure the quality of education or the institution’s ability to prove quality?

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A general view at the nickel smelter of PT Vale Indonesia in Sorowako, South Sulawesi, on August 2, 2024.

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Mining sector: From growth engine to growth constraint

As many industry insiders feared, the mining sector's performance has weakened further, locking it into negative territory for the first half of the year.

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An automated lithium-ion battery production line operates on Nov. 11, 2025, at a workshop of Zhejiang Shineway Technology Co Ltd in Yongkang, Zhejiang province, China.

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The extractive trap has a green exit

For five centuries, raw materials have flowed out of Africa and Brazil at low cost to be used as inputs elsewhere, often returning to their source countries embedded in expensive finished goods.

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Indonesian victims of human trafficking in Myanmar arrive at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten on Feb. 28, 2025, after being flown from Thailand following their handover by the Myanmar regime to Thailand. Myanmar handed over 84 Indonesians to Thailand on Feb. 27, officials said, the latest group of alleged scam center workers set to be repatriated from the region.

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Regional action is a must to combat human trafficking

Rather than delivering justice to victims, authorities have normalized, and often downplayed, their suffering, frequently misclassifying victims as perpetrators.

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AI could end Wall Street’s EPS obsession

Investors are focusing more on tangible results: cash flow.

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Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro (left) shows the way to China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi during their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Pasay, Metro Manila, on July 22, 2026.

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Why Beijing must play a long game in South China Sea

Why must China constantly attempt to prove its stature? What drives it to project superior force at every turn to assert its claims?

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The urgent need to protect academic integrity

Governance gap leaves academic freedom vulnerable to exploitation because academic repositories and open scholarly platforms operate on trust.

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State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi, third right, accompanied by Bank Indonesia deputy governors, speaks during a press conference on the resignation of Bank Indonesia governor Perry Warjiyo in Jakarta on July 27, 2026.

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Monetary policy credibility: Is independence a necessary condition?

Some are insisting that the new governor must be independent, which usually gets defined, rather narrowly, as someone able to say no. It is worth asking whether that is really the binding condition.

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Can progressives deliver economic growth?

At a time of historic inequality and inadequate public investment, the kind of redistributive policies promoted by politicians on the left are badly needed.

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Members of the Cimahi Clown Community distribute free meals to new pupils during the school orientation program at the SD Cibeber state elementary school complex in Cimahi, West Java, on July 14, 2026.

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The costs of ‘execution first, planning later’

It is true that a hefty share of public spending went into FGDs, seminars and workshops that produced little. But his own government now suffers the opposite failure of executing before it plans, then improvising the plan as the execution collapses. Yet the damage is already done, heavily.

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