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Jakarta Post
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The rules-based order: Between power and post-normality

As the long-standing rules-based order fragments under global uncertainties due to geopolitics, economics and technology, the world urgently needs a coherent, credible and collective framework for stability.

5 months ago
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United States’ superpower suicide

Empires rise and fall, but to my knowledge no state has ever deliberately, and systematically, killed its own power — much less with such speed. ...

5 months ago
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The rupiah’s long decline and Indonesia’s structural imbalances

The rupiah's persistent depreciation is a structural consequence of over-reliance on volatile capital inflows to finance a chronic current account deficit, persistent saving–investment imbalances, lasting fiscal deficit and a narrow, commodity-dependent export base.  ...

5 months ago

The Latest

Opinion premium

Analysis: A house today, a lifetime of debt

Housing is shifting inexorably from a milestone to a mirage in Indonesia. With a national backlog of 15 million houses, housing affordability has turned into a crisis spanning income groups, pushing many families to rent rather than buy. The government’s proposed 40-year mortgage scheme might ease monthly payments but raises a harder question: Does extending debt across most of a person’s productive life solve the housing crisis or merely redefine what desperation looks like?

5 months ago
Academia premium

Jakarta meets the deep state

The institutional reflexes that govern Jakarta were not built for a New York index provider that can erode a fifth of Indonesia's sovereign investor mandate overnight. 

5 months ago
Editorial premium

What an anticlimax summit

There was plenty of pomp and pageantry, but when it came to substance, there was little for the rest of the world to cheer about.

5 months ago
Academia premium

The missing pillar: Faith-based efforts to help solve Jakarta’s waste crisis

Jakarta’s billion-dollar WtE dreams will remain buried under a landslide of inefficiency unless the city bridges the gap between high-tech downstream plants and the untapped power of faith-based household sorting.

5 months ago
Academia premium

Counter-extremism strategy must anticipate, not just respond

For the second phase of Indonesia's counter-extremism policy to succeed, it must become a discipline of strategic thinking with the capacity to evolve alongside the complex security, social and developmental issues that are intertwined in violent extremism.

5 months ago
Academia premium

ASEAN’s dual-crisis decade: From pandemic recovery to energy crisis response

ASEAN’s response to COVID-19 evolved from rapid emergency containment to a multiyear recovery strategy, which has now transitioned into a permanent institutional architecture for future pandemic preparedness. 

5 months ago
Academia premium

Why Eurasia cannot wait: A charter for our time

As global hegemonic structures falter, the Eurasian Charter offers a bold, indigenous blueprint for a continent-wide security architecture built on the principle of indivisible security. This is a final call for Eurasian nations to claim their seat at the table and define a future free from external diktat.

5 months ago
Academia premium

Building a prosperous, inclusive, peaceful and sustainable world

Humanity stands at a critical juncture where unprecedented technological growth collides with escalating inequality and ecological collapse. We need a radical shift toward an inclusive, blue economy and peaceful diplomacy as the only viable path to a sustainable future.

5 months ago
Academia premium

Trump-Xi summit stabilizes US-China bilateral relations

As the world’s two largest economies meet in Beijing, the 2026 Summit marks a high-stakes pivot from "crisis management" to a fragile but essential strategic equilibrium.

5 months ago
Opinion premium

Analysis: Tightening food imports, expanding state control

Indonesia is tightening its grip on food trade. Through Trade Ministerial Regulation No. 11/2026, the government has imposed stricter import controls on a range of agricultural commodities while expanding the authority of the Agriculture Ministry across the food supply chain. Framed as a push toward food self-sufficiency, the policy signals a broader shift toward a more centralized and interventionist food regime, but it also raises concerns that tighter restrictions could drive up food prices before domestic production is ready to fill the gap.

5 months ago
Editorial premium

Waste sorting can’t wait

As the Bantar Gebang landfill overflows, Jakarta’s new waste sorting mandate marks a vital yet long overdue shift toward sustainability. But its success depends on real solutions, consistent enforcement and above all, public education.

5 months ago
Academia

Peatlands hold climate secrets we still miss

Peatlands have been developing over millennia on every continent and although they are globally important ecosystems, there is still much we don't know about them in order to make informed policy decisions today for benefits in the future.

5 months ago
Academia premium

System, not symptom: Indonesia’s real higher education problem

Indonesia has no shortage of brilliant minds; what it lacks is a system capable of cultivating them

5 months ago
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Normalizing Myanmar’s junta will not bring peace

Frustration with a failed strategy should not lead ASEAN into a more dangerous mistake: legitimizing military rule without accountability.

5 months ago
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The Trump–Xi summit and the new rules of competition

The center stage now belongs to technologies and industrial systems that will define long-term competitiveness. And increasingly, these two countries will help define its direction. 

5 months ago
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The calm that was never real: ‘Minsky stability' as a source of instability

The current crisis unfolding in the forex market is not the same as in 1997 and stems from inherited vulnerabilities, but what is similar is the artificially suppressed inflation underlying it.

5 months ago
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Everybody wants to be a political influencer

Platform-native influencers actively participate in the shaping of illiberal democracy, which in Indonesia almost always means working within the configurations of the oligarchy they appear to scrutinize. 

5 months ago
Opinion premium

Analysis: Indonesia eyes CNG, DME to ease LPG import burden amid energy crisis

The Indonesian government is looking to dimethyl ether (DME) and compressed natural gas (CNG) as alternatives to import-reliant liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), as it grapples with the impact of the global energy crisis triggered by the United States-Israeli war with Iran. Competing blockades by Iran and the US have shown little sign of easing, pushing up global energy prices and increasing pressure on Indonesia’s state budget, particularly energy subsidies for 3-kilogram LPG cylinders. In response, the government has raised prices for unsubsidized LPG products, sought alternative import sources and accelerated efforts to develop DME and CNG as substitute fuels.

5 months ago
Opinion premium

Analysis: Indonesia’s digital tightrope: Between safety and free speech

This year appears to be a significant moment for the Indonesian government to test its content moderation mechanisms. As the state expands its authority over digital platforms, a major challenge remains: balancing the need to protect users from harmful and illegal content while ensuring that moderation efforts do not evolve into broader censorship and restrictions on freedom of expression.

5 months ago
Editorial premium

The ghost in the film

A series of crackdowns on public screenings and discussions of the documentary film Pesta Babi (Pig Feast) serves as a grim reminder that the nation’s democratic progress is not only stalling but effectively backsliding.

5 months ago
Academia

Letter to editor: Myanmar diplomat responds

Myanmar’s embassy in Jakarta criticizes The Jakarta Post for identifying an NUG representative as a deputy foreign minister, urging balanced reporting and respect for Myanmar’s sovereignty and official position.

5 months ago
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How ASEAN misreads the prolonged Myanmar crisis

Indonesia must look past the junta’s tactical gestures and recognize that in Myanmar, a history of broken promises is the only reliable guide for future diplomacy.

5 months ago
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The new architecture of peace: Mediation in a multipolar world

As the old rules of diplomacy falter, a new "composite" era of mediation, led by middle powers and private experts, is rising to meet the most violent decade of the 21st century.

5 months ago
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Can honesty save ASEAN? Lessons from the Cebu Summit

While ASEAN is famous for diplomatic platitudes, the Cebu summit proved that admitting your flaws is the first step toward remaining relevant in a shifting geopolitical landscape.

5 months ago
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Debtor countries finally have a group of their own

The aim is to create a venue for these countries to discuss technical issues, share information on addressing debt challenges, access technical assistance and capacity building in debt management, coordinate their approaches and influence the global debt architecture.

5 months ago
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Indonesia’s economic growth strong, but pressure mounts

As populist spending programs collide with a volatile global energy market and a free-falling rupiah, Indonesia’s fiscal credibility faces its most dangerous trial since the 1997 financial crisis.

5 months ago
Opinion premium

Analysis: Growth masks rising risks from fiscal, monetary expansion

The recent announcement on 5.6 percent economic growth came as little surprise after Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa made a similar projection in February. At first glance, the figure appears to validate President Prabowo Subianto’s economic agenda, particularly the free nutritious meal program. Yet behind the stable headline growth, macroeconomic indicators suggest the economy is becoming increasingly dependent on government spending and monetary expansion rather than healthy private sector activity.

5 months ago
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