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Solidarity: Wearing traditional Papuan dress, members of the Ebamukai Solidarity Team for Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman show documents in front of the Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) office in Jakarta, on Sept. 9, 2020, as they sought to reimburse scholarship money totaling Rp 773.8
million (US$51,900). The lawyer was asked to return the funding, which she received from the LPDP, as it said that she had failed to return home to Indonesia after her studies. Security officers prevented them from entering the office, saying that the office was closed because of the large-scale social restrictions. — Solidarity: Wearing traditional Papuan dress, members of the Ebamukai Solidarity Team for Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman show documents in front of the Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) office in Jakarta, on Sept. 9, 2020, as they sought to reimburse scholarship money totaling Rp 773.8 million (US$51,900). The lawyer was asked to return the funding, which she received from the LPDP, as it said that she had failed to return home to Indonesia after her studies. Security officers prevented them from entering the office, saying that the office was closed because of the large-scale social restrictions.

Academia premium

LPDP furor and the narrow definition of national service

Behind the viral outrage of a "disloyal" scholarship recipient lies a rigid bureaucratic formula that values physical presence over global impact. It is time to ask why Indonesia treats its brightest minds like office furniture rather than strategic national assets.

1 week ago

Academia premium

Why the debate on LPDP awardees persists

Beyond the recent outrage online, the recurring debate over LPDP awardees reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of how long-term national investment actually works. ...

1 week ago

The world’s largest climate finance deal was built to flounder

Does it really help countries on the front line of climate change to cut emissions and adapt to its effects? ...

1 week ago

The Latest

An operator runs heavy equipment on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, to normalize a river in Nagari Sumpu, Tanah Datar, West Sumatra. The Tanah Datar administration has proposed about Rp 1.4 trillion (US$82.79 billion) in post-disaster recovery funding to the central government, including more than Rp 1.3 trillion for infrastructure, around Rp 92.9 billion for housing, Rp 49 billion for the economy, over Rp 6.7 billion for social programs and more than Rp 10 billion for cross-sector needs.

Academia premium

As disasters increase, climate adaptation funding lags behind

As disasters become more frequent, contingency funds prove insufficient, forcing local administrations to seek support from the central government, which seems to focus on its own priority programs.

1 week ago

Two people walk past damaged buildings on March 4, 2026, following a strike on a police station in Tehran, amid the United States-Israeli war with Iran.

Academia premium

An unjust war against a repressive regime is an unjust war

Iran may be indefensible, but that does not make an illegal war against it justifiable. By remaining silent, Indonesia is not choosing neutrality; it is choosing to abandon its founding principles in the face of raw coercion.

1 week ago

The national flag of Iran flies in the wind as debris lies scattered in the aftermath of an Israeli and United States strike on a police station, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran on March 4, 2026.

Academia premium

The long road to the US-Israeli war against Iran

By the time the bombs started falling, the decisive choices had already been made during years of strategic deliberation.

1 week ago

The Navy's KRI Raden Eddy Martadinata (foreground) passes the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales during a passing exercise (Passex) along the Indonesian Sea Lane of Communications (ALKI) III on Banda Sea, southwest of Buru Island, on July 31.

Academia premium

Indonesia’s strategic autonomy in a fragmented global order

In an era of intensifying great-power rivalry and economic decoupling, Indonesia must move beyond passive non-alignment toward a doctrine of disciplined strategic autonomy. By integrating balance-of-power logic with sophisticated economic statecraft, Jakarta can transform global uncertainty into a source of national leverage.

1 week ago

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazeem Gharibabadi addresses the audience on Saturday during the annual high-level debate of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland.

Academia premium

Selective multilateralism and the drift from law to power

As military force bypasses diplomatic channels, the international order faces a perilous transition from a system governed by the predictability of law to one dictated by the selective whims of power.

1 week ago

President Prabowo Subianto (left) speaks to United States President Donald Trump during the signing of the US-Indonesia Agreement on Reciprocal Tariffs (ART) in Washington, DC, on Feb. 19, 2026.

Too close to Trump: Gambling sovereignty, humanity for US’ approval

The trajectory is clear: Jakarta is tilting toward Washington at a cost many fear will be borne by ordinary Indonesians.

1 week ago

Danantara chief investment officer Pandu Sjahrir (bottom left) and Jordan Investment Fund director Zaher Al Qatarnaeh (bottom right) sign a memorandum of understanding on Dec. 9, 2025, to explore joint investments in strategic sectors in Jordan. The signing was also witnessed by Danantara CEO Rosan Roeslani (top left), who also serves as Investment and Downstream Minister, alongside Jordanian Investment Minister Tareq Abu Ghazaleh.

Academia premium

Demutualization, state and market: Who guides the guide?

Healthy markets rely on a paradox. They are built by the state but function best when the state does not dominate their day-to-day outcomes.

1 week ago

Cargo ships and tankers are seen off coast city of Fujairah on Feb. 25 in the Strait of Hormuz in the northern United Arab Emirates.

Academia premium

From trade deal to Middle East war — An economic turning point?

As global trade deals collide with Middle East volatility, Indonesia faces a "policy dilemma" where sacrificing short-term growth may be the only way to save long-term stability.

1 week ago

A woman stands in front of an ATM on Jan. 11 inside a shopping mall in East Jakarta.

Academia premium

When data flows, can banking supervision follow?

Cross-border data flows raise the question whether the authority that sustains safety and soundness remains fully enforceable once the relevant information is placed in another jurisdiction.

1 week ago

A staff of a small shoe manufacturer fabricates their new products on September 27, 2023, in Bogor, West Java.

Academia premium

Indonesia’s trade deal is dead. Now what?

The relevant question is no longer whether Indonesia should have signed the ART. It is what Indonesia does with the leverage it still holds.

1 week ago

A Saudi engineer walks next to aluminum ingots on Nov. 23, 2016, produced by the Maaden Aluminium Factory, in the Ras Al-Khair Industrial area near Jubail, Saudi Arabia.

Risks to Western aluminium supply rise as US-Israeli war with Iran escalates

Taken together, that makes GCC producers a core component of Western supply of a metal used across a wide spectrum of industries from automotive and construction to packaging.

1 week ago

Cambodia's Defense Minister Tea Seiha and Thailand's Defense Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit pose with documents during a special General Border Committee (GBC) meeting on Dec. 27, 2025, at a border checkpoint, in Chanthaburi province, Thailand.

Academia premium

After 50 years ASEAN's peace treaty needs new teeth

While the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation remains a global gold standard for diplomacy, ASEAN must bridge the gap between its aspirational principles and the political will required to actually use them.

1 week ago

A time exposure photograph shows trails and explosions on Feb. 28, 2026, from projectile interceptions by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system over Tel Aviv.

Academia premium

Indonesia and de-escalation diplomacy

The more realistic question is whether Indonesia can help slow the climb, widening the space for restraint before escalation crosses a dangerous threshold.

1 week ago

Seeking safety: Motorists block the highway as they flee their villages in southern Lebanon along the coastal road through the city of Sidon on March 2, 2026, as Israel extends its war against Iran into Lebanon.

Academia premium

What the US-Iran war means for Indonesia’s cybersecurity

As non-kinetic warfare redefines modern conflict, Jakarta must bridge the gap between its digital ambitions and its defensive realities to secure national sovereignty.

2 weeks ago

Qualcomm's stand advertising 6G technology draws audiences on March 2 during the inauguration of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the world's biggest mobile technology showcase and fair in Barcelona.

Academia premium

The 6G race will define the next digital order

With 6G, the struggle is not over suppliers, but over the technical blueprint itself.

2 weeks ago

Academia premium

The information technology stakes in the US-Indonesia trade deal

The recently signed agreement, without saying so outright, institutionalizes a process through which US threat assessments can shape Indonesia's ICT procurement, illustrating the increasingly blurred line between national security and commercial decisions.

2 weeks ago

Tankers are seen at the Khor Fakkan Container Terminal in the United Araba Emirates, the only natural deep-sea port in the region and one of the major container ports in the Sharjah Emirate, along the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which one-fifth of global oil output passes, on June 23, 2025.

Oil markets' bet on a brief Iran shock is about to be tested

While the region's oilfields had escaped damage by the third day of the conflict, the inability to ship fuel out of the Gulf is already straining a tightly interconnected global energy system.

1 week ago

This handout natural-color image acquired with MODIS on NASA's Terra satellite taken on Feb. 5, 2025, shows the Gulf of Oman and the Makran region (center) in southern Iran and southwestern Pakistan, and the Strait of Hormuz (left) and the northern coast of Oman (bottom).

If the Iran conflict shuts Hormuz, global economic chaos could follow

There are already signs that the strait will become a major focus of concern because of the huge implications should the conflict disrupt maritime traffic through this narrow outlet of the Persian Gulf.

1 week ago

Myanmar's Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hau Khan Sum (left) walks with Thailand's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow (center) and Vietnam's Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung after the group photo during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (AMM) in Cebu City, the Philippines on Jan. 29, 2026.

Academia premium

The case for a long-term ASEAN envoy on Myanmar

The Philippines has indicated that ASEAN is considering appointing a long-term special envoy on Myanmar to replace the current system of annual rotation.

2 weeks ago

An intercepted projectile falls into the sea on March 1, 2026, near Dubai's Palm Jumeirah archipelago. The United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, 2026, killing Iran's supreme leader and top military leaders, prompting authorities to retaliate with strikes on Israel, and US bases across the Gulf.

Academia premium

Strikes without shield: Indonesia cannot mediate what it cannot survive

Diplomatic capital may be Indonesia’s greatest asset, but in a Middle East redefined by missile exchanges and succession crises, Jakarta is discovering that moral authority cannot stop a warhead it has no defense against.

2 weeks ago

Security first: Figurines stand around a smartphone, whose back is opened, in a composite photo created in Paris on July 23, 2021, to raise the issue of personal data protection in this fast-growing digital era.

Academia premium

Data protection at stake in the Indonesia-US trade agreement

By prioritizing the commercial "free flow" of information, the Indonesia-US trade deal threatens to transform personal data from a constitutional right into a mere commodity, leaving Indonesian citizens vulnerable in a regulatory vacuum.

2 weeks ago

President Prabowo Subianto (left) speaks to United States President Donald Trump on Feb. 19 during the signing of the US-Indonesia Agreement on Reciprocal Tariffs (ART) in Washington, DC.

Academia premium

The ART of the bad deal

The ART's own fine print could quietly close the door it claims to open.

2 weeks ago

Smoke rises following an explosion on March 1, 2026, in Tehran, after Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iran.

Academia premium

The perils of a power vacuum in Iran

Because power vacuums cannot be targeted by precision munitions or mapped by satellite imagery, the United States' strategic thinking systematically underestimates the danger they pose.

2 weeks ago

A relative of one of the victims of extrajudicial killings of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterteʼs drug war cries next to the urn of her son on Feb. 20 during the inurnment rites at the Shrine of Healing (Dambana ng Paghilom) at a cemetery in Caloocan, Metro Manila.

Academia premium

Why the Philippines needs dedutertefication

What the Philippines needs is a genuine moral reckoning: in schools, in media, in families, in politics.

2 weeks ago

Foreign ministers and other diplomats of ASEAN nations pose for a group photo on Jan. 29 during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat in Cebu City, the Philippines.

Academia premium

ASEAN integration only shield against multipolar storms

As the European Union and ASEAN both face a crisis of relevance, only a bold transition from loose cooperation to deep integration can prevent middle powers from being crushed between the competing dictates of Washington and Beijing.

2 weeks ago

A plume of smoke rises from the port of Jebel Ali on March 1 following a reported Iranian strike in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

Academia premium

Four circuit breakers stand between the US-Iran war and World War III

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

2 weeks ago

A staff member monitors a control panel on Feb. 27, 2024, inside the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine manufacturing unit of the Serum Institute of India (SII) at its headquarters in Hadapsar, Pune, India.

Academia premium

Global health financing needs a reset

Dependence on a small number of provider countries has become a structural vulnerability, as shifts in their political and fiscal priorities reverberate across the entire system.

2 weeks ago

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