When FIFA tosses out its own rule book after a phone call from the US president Trump, it proves that the pitch is never truly free from politics.

As President Prabowo pushes for a massive structural pivot toward state economic sovereignty, Indonesia faces a high-stakes gamble: Can it resurrect the ideals of a Pancasila economy without stumbling into the traps of heavy-handed economic nationalism?

Ratification, implementation and utilization are often less celebrated than negotiations, but they are the stages that translate ambition into meaningful outcomes. 

As global automakers race to engineer rare-earth-free electric vehicles, resource-rich nations like Indonesia risk becoming trapped on the wrong side of a widening technological divide.

Energy transition is no longer only a climate imperative, but also a strategic tool to reduce import dependence and protect the economy from geopolitical shocks.

To capture global markets, Indonesia must pivot from raw smelting to predictable, long-term manufacturing policies that offer Western investors a stable alternative to China.

A pattern of last-minute reversals raises a troubling question about Indonesia’s foreign policy: whether it is guided by a steady, strategic vision or merely reacting to public pressure.

Amid rising geopolitical tensions and growing concerns over energy security, the government is considering phasing out liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking—around 80 percent of which is imported—by reviving a nationwide induction (electric) stove program. At the same time, policymakers are also exploring the replacement of subsidized LPG with compressed natural gas (CNG) canisters. Yet beyond the promise of reducing import dependence, the question remains: Who stands to benefit from these policy shifts?

Centuries before modern democracies took shape, Ukraine was forging a radical blueprint for freedom, a deep-rooted constitutional legacy that remains its ultimate armor today.

Shanghai Futures Exchange is looking to extend reach across the Asian region, capitalizing on the Chinese nickel ecosystem that links mines in Indonesia with refineries on the Chinese mainland.

Given the new reality across policy sectors facing the world today, along with the securitization trend across the Asia-Pacific, there is no better time to revisit the work of Hadi Soesastro, whose analysis of Indonesia and the region’s response to great power economic competition remains strikingly relevant today.

To effectively counter authoritarian models, regional powers like India and Japan must stop sidelining human rights and integrate democratic values into their foreign policies.

ASEAN can no longer afford to mistake the military junta in Naypyidaw as Myanmar: Doing so ignores a profound transformation where alternative governance is already becoming a lived reality.

When university admission is earned by merit but decided by the wallet, Indonesia doesn't just lose students—it forfeits its future.

The controversy over military-style training for candidate managers of the Red and White Cooperatives and Fisherman’s Villages programs points to something larger than a single policy failure: the steady expansion of the Indonesian Military (TNI) into civilian governance and economic management. While the deaths of five civilian trainees has sparked public alarm, the deeper concern is how state institutions are being reshaped around military discipline and authority.

For much of Indonesia's modern history, right from the moment when STOVIA, the country’s first medical school set up by the Dutch colonial government became the training ground for Indonesia’s nationalist leaders, up through the current day as students voice their opposition against government policies from campus halls, higher education institutions have always been an integral part of Indonesian politics.

As the leaders of the world's largest and third-largest democracies meet in Jakarta, the ultimate success of the Prabowo-Modi summit hinges not on traditional diplomacy, but on how effectively they can unlock the economic powerhouse of their combined 485 million youth.

Hotter oceans fuel stronger cyclones, a more humid atmosphere, more intense rainfall and more heat in air masses over the seas, which can in turn make heatwaves over land more likely and more intense.

Can the EU continue to lead the world through regulation if the economic foundations that sustain such leadership are steadily eroding?

To meet fast-growing expectations political leaders need to reimagine the role of the state for the new age of technology.

NATO members no longer share a coherent understanding of the values, economic order, geopolitical vision and legal principles it was created to defend.

Behind the grand spectacle of the 80th National Police anniversary, the force faces growing scrutiny over a stark, documented rise in state-sanctioned violence and civic repression. As new legislative frameworks expand police powers while dismantling oversight, the line between public security and political instrumentalization is blurring dangerously.

As Indonesia’s factory activity plummets while the broader economy expands, a troubling question emerges: is the nation outgrowing the very manufacturing engine it needs to achieve its high-income ambitions?

The establishment of the Indonesia International Financial Center (IFC), introduced through the revised Financial Sector Development and Strengthening (P2SK) Law, has raised concerns that it could become a channel for illicit funds. The concern stems from the law's simultaneous introduction of legal protections for buyers of special government bonds, shielding them from criminal, civil and tax investigations while prohibiting the bonds from being used for tax assessments or as evidence in court proceedings.

From the introduction of barracks slang in corporate offices to lethal boot camps for civilian managers, Indonesia is quietly sliding back into a dangerous era of creeping militarization.

Tehran's economic leverage will likely remain strong through the US midterm elections in November, but could weaken once the votes are counted, raising the risk of renewed confrontation afterward.

As global geopolitical architectures shift, the recent ASEAN-Russia Summit underscores how Southeast Asian nations are fiercely preserving their strategic autonomy to chart a self-determined path toward a multipolar world.