A vessel from the Taiwan Coast Guard (front) monitors a China Coast Guard ship on Dec. 12, 2024, while patrolling waters a few nautical miles from Taiwan's northeastern coast.

Madness or common sense: The two futures of the Asia-Pacific

The ASEAN+3 mechanism, where ASEAN nations sit with Japan, South Korea and China, would become one of the most relevant political forums in the region for discussing the Taiwan issue.

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COP30 and the future of Southeast Asia’s tropical forests

Southeast Asia’s forests are not untouched wilderness, but social-ecological systems shaped over millennia of indigenous and local stewardship. ...

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Testing ASEAN centrality in a shifting geopolitical currents

As the geopolitical contours of the wider Asia-Pacific shift, ASEAN’s role as the central manager of regional affairs is under intense scrutiny. ...

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Teachers collect trays of food for their students supplied by President Prabowo Subianto's flagship free nutritious meal program on Oct. 13 at an elementary school in Darul Kamal, Aceh.

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The dangerous drift of our universities: Who will feed and educate Indonesia tomorrow?

Over the past two decades, for unclear reasons, we have pushed specialized universities to become broad, general-purpose institutions.

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Navy chief of staff Adm. Muhammad Ali (center) and other officers pose in front of the KRI Prabu Siliwangi during a naming ceremony at the Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri's facility in Muggiano, Italy, on Jan. 29, 2025. The Prabu Siliwangi is one of the two latest warships being named, the other being the KRI Brawijaya.

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A new course for Nusantara’s defense: Peace through strength

Indonesia is endowed with abundant resources yet impoverished in sovereignty; vast in territory yet constrained in resolve; populous yet fragile in strength.

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United States President Donald Trump shakes hands with Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman at the US-Saudi Investment Forum at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC on Nov. 19, 2025.

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Israel-Arab relations push could stall over Palestinian statehood

Saudi Arabia has explicitly linked joining the Abraham accords to a plan for a Palestinian state.

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A message reading “AI artificial intelligence“, a keyboard and robot hands are seen in this illustration taken on Jan. 27, 2025.

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AI in journalism and democracy: Can we rely on it?

GenAI tools are reshaping the information environment in ways most audiences never see. From the data that trains them to the labor that maintains them, their inner workings raise urgent questions for journalism and democratic accountability.

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A Jakarta Environmental Agency mist cannon truck passes along Jl. TB Simatupang in South Jakarta on Sept. 19, releasing 4,000 liters of water as mist in a bid to reduce air pollution ahead of Jakarta Eco Future Fest 2025, a two-day environmental festival that opened on Sept. 25.

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Clean air for Jakarta: From a local crisis to a G20 global priority

The G20's decision to include air quality on its agenda presents an opportunity for Jakarta to ramp up evidence-based efforts to take a lead in ensuring clean air for its residents as part of its aim to become a global city by 2045.

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(Image courtesy of the Culture Ministry)

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From local wisdom to regional partnership: Indonesia’s cultural diplomacy in the Pacific

Indonesia’s remarkable cultural diversity, spanning thousands of islands, hundreds of ethnic groups and countless living traditions, has long made the archipelago one of the world’s great meeting points of civilizations.

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State-owned ferry operator ASDP Indonesia Ferry CEO Ira Puspadewi speaks to the press on Feb. 6, 2020.

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Indonesian paradox: When business strategy becomes a crime

The jail sentence for former ASDP Ferry Indonesia CEO is a warning siren for anyone hoping Indonesia’s state-owned enterprises (BUMN) might someday behave like Singapore’s Temasek or France’s EDF.

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University students carry flags that read Indonesia is dark (Indonesia gelap) during a demonstration on Sept. 1 in Yogyakarta.

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How democracies learn to goose-step

An electoral democracy can gradually drift toward dictatorship, step by step, until it reaches the point of no return.

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Graffiti that reads “Police are killers” is seen as community groups and university students stage a demonstration on Sept. 1, demanding an end to police brutality in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

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The new KUHAP casts a long shadow over Indonesian justice

The new KUHAP grants the police more powers at a time when the public is demanding reform of the police, stemming from widespread reports of abuse, criminalization, torture, case fabrication and corruption.

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Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos Jr delivers remarks on Oct. 28 during the ASEAN chairmanship hand over ceremony as part of the closing ceremony of the 47th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

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The oust Marcos plot: Big bombs, no blast

The oust-Marcos plotters misread the lay of the land if they expected a massive migration of support for VP Sara.

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Beneficiaries of the government’s Family Hope Program (PKH) in Bandung, West Java, stand in a long line at the city's Main Post Office to obtain cash aid on May 10, 2024.

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The world needs an independent inequality panel before the gap widens

As inequality increasingly shapes economies, politics and transnational cooperations across the globe, we need a world panel to specifically address the issue by collating and synthesizing data from across varying regions.

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Law Minister Supratman Andi Agtas (center), seated between Deputy State Secretary Bambang Eko Suhariyanto (left) and Deputy Law Minister Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, gives a salute ahead of the House of Representatives plenary session at the Senayan legislative complex in Central Jakarta on Nov. 18, 2025. During the session, the House passed a revision of the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP).

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The new KUHAP: A digital code with an analogue mindset

Recognizing electronic evidence in name only, without embedding it in a coherent framework of powers and safeguards, invites challenges to the integrity and reliability of digital findings.

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The stakes of Danantara’s investment in GoTo-Grab

For Danantara, the priority should be safeguarding state investment integrity and keeping Indonesia’s digital market open and credible. Acting prematurely or politically could turn strategic capital into reputational risk.

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President Prabowo Subianto salutes on Nov. 12 as he inspects a guard of honor after arriving at Admiralty House in Sydney, Australia.

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In the country’s foreign policy, Prabowo is Indonesia

Prabowo has shown how deeply he has personalized Indonesia’s foreign policy, turning what was once a collective and deliberative process into a series of gestures driven by instinct, emotion and self-image.

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Indigenous people hold hands during a protest calling for climate justice and territorial protection on Nov. 17, during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belem, Brazil.

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Why climate action needs inequality focus

Reducing inequality should be a guiding principle to decisions on climate change.

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Activists hold a banner protesting violence against women, to halt environmentally destructive development projects and stop the intimidation and criminalization of women human rights activists during a demonstration on Nov. 25, 2024, for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in Jakarta.

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Climate justice needs power, not just ideas

Without political leverage and democracy, civil society’s struggle will keep turning in the mud.

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Dutch King Willem-Alexander (right) and Queen Maxima (left) are welcomed by a Batak traditional 'tor-tor' dance on March, 12, 2020, during their visit to Lintong Ni Huta village in Toba regency, North Sumatra.

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When a queen returns: Finance, inclusion and the colonial echoes of advice

Beneath the politeness of a visit, there is a layered history, highlighting how global finance continues to be intertwined with colonial histories and ongoing inequalities.

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A woman and her child walk past subsidized housing for media industry workers on June 5, 2025 at Gran Harmoni Cibitung residential complex, Bekasi regency, West Java. The government has prepared 1,000 subsidized homes in the first phase for media industry workers across Indonesia under the Mortgage Financing Liquidity Facility (FLPP) scheme.

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The economics of home: When housing stands on precarious footing

Nearly four in every 10 Indonesian families now live on the edge of housing precarity, revealing a social architecture whose stability is far more fragile than our macroeconomic headlines suggest.

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Daylight express: A Whoosh high-speed train passes through the Ngamprah tunnel in West Bandung regency, West Java, on July 31, 2025.

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Whoosh and the missing ingredients of development-led infrastructure

There is a policy vacuum in the land use and zoning of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway project, as most developments along the route focus on real estate rather than multimodal access or job creation.

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Brides and grooms take part in a mass officiating event on Aug. 27, 2025 organized by the Surabaya city administration for dozens of couples who previously wedded under local traditions, which are not legally recognized.

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Sakinah Clap and internalized submission in marriage

Tepuk Sakinah lacks explicit reference to justice and equality. Its key concepts emphasize mutuality rather than equality.

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Old friends: President Prabowo Subianto (center) and Jordan’s King Abdullah II inspect an honor guard on Nov. 14, 2025 at the presidential palace in Jakarta.

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Indonesia–Jordan ties: Strategic partners for peace, stability and resilient Indo-Pacific

Indonesia and Jordan strengthen relationships as they bid to maintain regional stability amid intensifying major-power competition, safeguard sovereignty and promote peace and justice.

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A palm oil plantation (right) and a peatland forest are seen on June 10, 2025 in Bangsal village, Ogan Komering Ilir regency, South Sumatra.

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Redefining protection: Investing in a community-led forest economy

Despite millions of dollars poured into climate action, only a small fraction reaches the communities that have kept their forests standing for generations.

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Blooms of hope: Workers plant flowers on Nov. 4 next to a sign for the 2025 G20 Johannesburg summit outside the NASREC Expo Centre, the venue of this year’s summit under South Africa’s Group of 20 presidency.

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A 70-year spirit of growth: From Bandung to Johannesburg

Ahead of the G20 presidency's impending handover to the United States, followed by other Global North economies over the next three years, the Johannesburg summit marks a turning point in sustaining the multilateral order.

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