Commentators reach for the most dramatic analogy: World War III. The analogy, while not absurd, overstates the probability of escalation.

Indonesia’s much-celebrated breakthrough in lowering United States tariffs is already losing its shine. Just one day after the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) was sealed, securing a headline tariff cut to 19 percent, the US Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump’s earlier tariff regime was unlawful. The question now is not how deep the cut appears on paper, but whether Indonesia has genuinely strengthened its bargaining position or is merely navigating an increasingly unpredictable trade landscape.

Jakarta should focus on what it can actually do, without grandstanding.

As Indonesia deliberates the military’s role in domestic security, the priority must remain the preservation of the criminal justice system over purely kinetic solutions. Effective counterterrorism is measured not by the neutralization of threats, but by the state’s ability to uphold legal accountability under civilian oversight.

In Washington last week, amid headlines about trade agreements and institutional initiatives, a quieter but unmistakable theme ran through Indonesia’s February 2026 diplomatic mission: history. 

In the remote regions of Eastern Indonesia, a rigid digital reporting system is forcing midwives to choose between ticking boxes and saving lives.

It is time to restructure the current system, which is set up to keep building one technology facility after another that produces everything but actual innovation, by addressing the incentives that make repetition more attractive than real change.

The recent deactivation of millions of National Health Insurance (JKN) contribution assistance recipients (PBI) has been revealed as more than a mere data-cleaning exercise. It has exposed a systemic failure to recognize the vulnerability of the poor, for whom subsidized health care is a necessity, not an option. This episode underscores persistent flaws in the design and execution of Indonesia’s health protection framework.

This retreat is good for sensible policy, because the failed alarmist approach relied on a series of persistent misrepresentations. 

As Gen Z trades traditional wedding bells for financial stability and personal fulfillment, religious affairs offices have discovered that it takes more than TikTok trends and free durians to fix a national marriage slump.

The Board of Peace meeting was long on showmanship and short on substance.

As 2026 ASEAN chair, the Philippines is expected to assume a more proactive role in sustaining dialogue among member states, minimizing the risk of miscalculation and helping to prevent tensions from escalating.

Signs of suicidality, defined as the risk of suicide as indicated by suicidal behavior or ideation, are increasing among the nation's youth amid socioeconomic pressures and limited mental health support.

While Indonesia’s Red and White initiatives aim to revitalize cooperatives as constitutional cornerstones of the economy, empirical data reveals a sector struggling to translate scale into growth. True economic sovereignty will require shifting the focus from administrative expansion to high-value productivity and human capital reform.

When legality becomes stratified by class, democracy collapses into oligarchy.

We find it troubling that the partnership purports to protect the environment, when in Papua, these military-dominated monocultures are riding roughshod over local communities.

The controversy surrounding LPDP scholarship recipients reveals a fundamental flaw in Indonesia’s development strategy: a narrow focus on physical presence over strategic influence. To compete globally, Indonesia must shift from a framework of geographic compliance to one of borderless contribution.

The Indonesia–US tariff deal is a pragmatic adjustment in an era of managed globalization.

Global coal oversupply and falling prices have prompted the Indonesian government to cut domestic coal production this year in an effort to stabilize the market. The move has raised concern among coal producers, who warn that smaller operational scales could reduce employment and non-tax state revenue (PNBP). At the same time, to secure coal supply for state-owned electricity company PT PLN, the government plans to increase the domestic market obligation (DMO). This dual pressure on producers raises an important question: will the production cut outlined in the 2026 annual work plan (RKAB) for the mining sector help restore prices, or will it create further challenges?

By prioritizing imports over domestic procurement, Agrinas runs counter to the government’s pledge to strengthen domestic industry.

In companies that succeed, adoption is driven from the top down and reinforced from the bottom up, making digital tools integral to daily decision-making and execution.

Forget policy aspirations, the ASEAN Power Grid is transforming into an "electricity supercycle" that represents Southeast Asia’s most consequential and investable infrastructure play of the decade.

The impunity of the 1998 criminals is the overarching feature of almost all state-sponsored violence in Indonesia’s past and recent history.

The US Supreme Court did the right thing by ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) “does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.”

Other major trading partners like China, Japan, or South Korea, would have grounds to question whether Indonesia is granting discriminatory treatment inconsistent with MFN rules.

Russian Ambassador Sergei Tolchenov defends Moscow’s Ukraine actions as lawful and security-driven, questions UN voting claims and says Russia prefers negotiations.

As Indonesia's corruption score falls to 34, the President suggests authoritarianism might help. His own fiscal policies prove otherwise.