A forest fire burns peatland shrubs on July 19, 2026, in Cot Seumeureng village, Samatiga district, West Aceh, Aceh.

Indonesia’s peatlands show restoration can work

Although Indonesia’s restoration program has shown positive results, the threat of fire still looms over peatland that has already been degraded.

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When diplomatic neutrality meets defense network warfare

As unmanned systems increasingly define the battlespace, they must plug directly into a shared digital web to serve as viable combat nodes. ...

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Why Aceh peace remains fragile 21 years after the Helsinki accord

Two decades after ending decades of civil war, Aceh’s fragile peace is unraveling as a disillusioned new generation turns against its own ruling ex-rebel elite and revives calls for independence. ...

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Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa (center) speaks on Friday at the 2027 Draft State Budget and Financial Notes press conference in Jakarta.

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Beyond state budget: How much can the new financial architecture carry?

The government’s bold plan to fund massive growth beyond the state budget hinges on whether its new sovereign wealth apparatus truly mobilizes fresh capital - or merely hides the risks.

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Fire of fury: People take part in a protest in Bandung, West Java, on Aug. 29, 2025, following the death of an ojol (online motorcycle transportation) driver who was run over by an armored Brimob (Mobile Brigade Corps) vehicle the night before.

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From manufactured chaos to people’s real grievances

Behind the state’s narrative of manufactured chaos lies an undeniable reality: an overburdened public rising up to demand economic fairness, accountability and genuine justice.

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Shut it down: Demonstrators from the MBG Watch alliance carry kitchen utensils during a protest on June 10 outside the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) headquarters in Central Jakarta. The protesters called for improvements in the management of the free nutritious meal (MBG) program after former BGN head Dadan Hindayana and former deputy heads Sony Sonjaya and Lodewyk Pusung were named suspects
in an alleged corruption case by the Attorney General’s Office.

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Stopping the corrupt revolving door from within

To truly stop corruption, Indonesia must look beyond prosecuting rogue individuals and install unbreakable internal controls where the revolving door starts spinning.

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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.

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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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An employee works on a solar panel production line on May 16, 2024, at a GCL System Integration Technology factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China.

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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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More than 1,000 women take part in a kebaya parade to celebrate National Kebaya Day, organized by the Indonesian Women's Congress (Kowani) in Palembang, South Sumatra on July 19, 2026.

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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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