The United Nations (UN) logo is seen on a gate outside the UN headquarters ahead of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Sept. 21, 2025, in New York, the United States.

Mobilizing middle powers in a multi-directional world

Middle powers are critically important in at least two spheres of influence: in the UN and in protection against mass atrocities.

1 week ago

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What do dead monkeys reveal about Indonesia's wildfire toll?

The flames may eventually die down, but for the wildlife trapped in Indonesia’s charred forests, the real crisis of hunger, trauma and displacement has only just begun. ...

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Hidden fiscal risk behind Indonesia’s military expenditure

Indonesia is entering an era of bigger defense budgets and small budgetary visibility. Yet the institutions that allow the legislature and the public to determine where money goes have not strengthened. ...

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The Latest

Police officers and protesters face each other on Aug. 27 during a demonstration urging lawmakers to immediately pass an asset forfeiture law for corrupt officials outside the Senayan Legislative complex in Jakarta.

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The shield, the weapon, the decoy: Indonesia’s architecture of elite protection

The public has been handed a reform that was quietly rendered toothless months before its scheduled arrival.

1 week ago

A farmer walks into the solar-powered water pump station in Tengengwetan village, Siwalan district in Pekalongan, Central Java, on Aug. 22. The solar-powered water pump allows farmers to cut diesel fuel consumption and thus their production cost.

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100 GW: new electrons for a new economy

The 100-gigawatt solar ambition is no longer about hitting a target, it is about turning homegrown clean power into our next great economic engine.

1 week ago

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Calling drivers entrepreneurs won’t create better jobs

Rebranding gig drivers as "entrepreneurs" might polish government employment data, but no administrative label can turn precarious, low-productivity survival into a genuine path to prosperity.

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Foreign Minister Sugiono (right) shakes hands with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as they attend a press conference after their meeting on Aug. 21 at the Foreign Ministry office in Jakarta.

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Indonesia and China: Toward a more honest conversation

Closer relations present a moment to revisit whether the partnership has mutually benefited our peoples and contributed to the greater global public good amid such an unpredictable international environment.

1 week ago

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The UN cannot, and need not, wait for consensus

At the United Nations' 81st General Assembly, member states will be close to choosing the next secretary-general, who will immediately be confronted not only by many global crises, but also by the UN’s diminished ﬁnances.

1 week ago

Fights for justice: Members of the Advocacy Team for Democracy (TAUD), legal counsel for Andrie Yunus of Kontras, display legal documents on May 11, 2026, stating their client’s rejection of attendance at the military trial scheduled to be held at the Jakarta Military Court II-08 on May 13.

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From arsenic to acid: Impunity and the retreat of civilian supremacy

From the poisoning of Munir to an acid attack left unpunished, Indonesia’s military justice system reveals a chilling truth: impunity isn’t a breakdown of the law, but a calculated display of power.

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An exhibitor looks at a wafer during the SEMICON China semiconductor exhibition in Shanghai on March 25, 2026.

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How obscure yttrium became a global flashpoint

This obscure member of the rare earths family is going to be high on the agenda when China's President Xi Jinping meets with United States President Donald Trump later this month in Washington.

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Elementary school children sit on a bamboo raft as they cross the Citarum River on their way home in Saguling, Bandung, West Java, on Sept. 1, 2026.

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Reading the PISA scores and what should follow

The more useful question for Indonesia is why its students fall behind, and what can be done about it.

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Newly appointed Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara (left) reacts as outgoing Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa signs a document, during a handover ceremony at the Finance Ministry, on Sept. 15, 2026.

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Is Indonesia returning to fiscal orthodoxy?

The new finance minister may reassure nervous markets, but the real test begins when fiscal discipline inevitably collides with President Prabowo’s expansive political ambitions.

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Newly appointed Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara (left) receives congratulations from Danantara Indonesia Chief Executive Officer Rosan Roeslani during a swearing-in ceremony on Sept. 14 at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta following a Cabinet reshuffle. President Prabowo Subianto appointed Nazara as finance minister for the remainder of the 2024–2029 term, replacing Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa.

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Indonesia’s fiscal ambitions are too big for its finance ministers

Three finance ministers in less than two years proves Indonesia’s fiscal challenge isn’t about who manages the budget, but whether political ambition has finally outpaced economic reality.

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Students attend a class at a state elementary school in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, on Aug. 21, 2026. The Palangka Raya Education Agency implemented measures for elementary and junior high school students, including delaying the start of classes to 8 a.m., temporarily suspending outdoor activities, requiring students to wear masks and implementing distance learning for early childhood education students due to haze from forest and land fires that had deteriorated air quality.

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Beyond arrests: Who is really responsible for the haze?

Smoke doesn’t stop at national borders, and accountability shouldn’t stop at the person holding the match.

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The raid: Personnel from the National Police’s counterterrorism squad Densus 88 show seized firearms and other items on Aug. 14, 2023, following a raid on the house of an alleged sympathizer of the Islamic State movement in Bekasi, West Java.

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When violence falls between the cracks

As youth violence shifts from organized terrorist dogma to decentralized digital subcultures, Southeast Asia must confront a new reality: how do you stop an impending attack when there is no ideology to deradicalize and no network to map?

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Brazil's Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira (from left), UAE's Supreme Council for National Security Secretary-General Ali Mohamed Hammad Al Shamsi, President Prabowo Subianto, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, China's President Xi Jinping, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed pose for a family photo during the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi.

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Why Russia is deepening ties across the Global South

The Ukraine war certainly featured in conversations. Tellingly, however, Putin steered many talks with leaders towards fuel, trade and transit.

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A guide leads a boat tour on Sept. 19, 2024, through Bali’s Ngurah Rai Forest Park, a mangrove conservation park spanning 1,373.5 hectares in Denpasar.

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We know how to bring degraded land back to life

Restoring our degraded lands is no longer optional: It is a proven, high-return investment in our climate, economies and survival.

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President Prabowo Subianto (right) shakes hands with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) after signing the Treaty on Common Security during the latter's work visit to the State Palace in Jakarta on Feb. 6, 2026.

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Indonesia–Australia: Neighbors by geography, allies by necessity

Once built, trust has to be continuously nurtured to enable the two countries to contribute fully to the maintenance of peace and security in the region.

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Newly appointed Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara (left) shakes hands with outgoing finance minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa during a handover ceremony on Sept. 15 at the Finance Ministry in Jakarta.

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Suahasil can restore budget credibility, but challenges remain

The new finance minister brings steady hands and deep institutional memory, but restoring fiscal credibility will mean making the hard choices his predecessor avoided.

2 weeks ago

A fishmonger holds a basket of fish on Oct. 18, 2024, at a wet market in Kuala Lumpur.

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Chinese SMEs in Malaysia and ASEAN: Coming in fast and furious

As agile Chinese SMEs rapidly plant roots across Southeast Asia, Malaysia faces a high-stakes choice: harness their momentum to build a regional powerhouse, or watch its own businesses get crowded out.

2 weeks ago

A container is loaded onto a cargo ship on April 16, 2025, at the Port Hai Phong in Northern Vietnam.

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Democratic dilemma: Communist Vietnam outpaces Indonesia, Philippines

As Communist-led Vietnam laps Southeast Asia's sluggish democracies in growth and foreign capital, ordinary citizens in Jakarta and Manila are left asking an uncomfortable question: Does democracy actually hinder prosperity?

2 weeks ago

Chinese President Xi Jinping (center) attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin on Sept. 1, 2025, in this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik.

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A fractured world tests the limits of multilateralism

From Central Asia to the Pacific, sovereign states are proving that global rules cannot remain the exclusive playground of great powers.

2 weeks ago

A satellite image shows black smoke rising from an area of Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline south of Medina, Hejaz region, Saudi Arabia on Sept. 10, 2026.

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The Red Sea crisis exposes BRICS’ deep divisions

Rapid expansion of the bloc means that its 21 members have deeply divergent interests, particularly in the Middle East.

2 weeks ago

The leaders of participating countries take a “family photograph” on Sept. 13, 2026, during the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi.

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Twenty years on, BRICS faces a defining choice

Amid shifting global power dynamics and emerging economies seeking a stronger voice, a central issue for BRICS today is whether it should continue as an informal group or take steps toward becoming a formal organization.

2 weeks ago

Coal is loaded onto barges at a jetty operated by the group along the Kedang Kepala River in Senyiur village, East Kutai regency, East Kalimantan, in this file photo.

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The Bayan valuation mystery: When markets need answers, not speculation

When a $26 billion giant is targeted for $4.8 billion, the real casualty isn’t price—it’s trust.

2 weeks ago

Two schoolchildren look over a densely populated informal settlement in the Kebon Melati neighborhood of Jakarta, on Aug. 7, 2026. Statistics Indonesia reported that the country's poverty rate stood at 8.07 percent in March 2026, with 22.93 million people living below the poverty line, down by 430,000 from September 2025.

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Global development's missing ingredient

Faith-based institutions committed to human dignity and pluralism can play an instrumental role in building the infrastructure required for grassroots organizing at scale.

2 weeks ago

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, leaders of participating countries gather for a family photograph during the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on Sept. 13, 2026.

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Delhi's BRICS moment: A bite without teeth

New Delhi Declaration holds an 11-nation bloc together, but ducks the Middle East, and Washington breathes easy.

2 weeks ago

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (right) and his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail arrive during the 69th National Day celebrations in Malaysia's administrative capital Putrajaya on Aug. 31, 2026.

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Malaysia’s election drums, political sums

Can Malaysia's UMNO pressure Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim into calling for an early election?

2 weeks ago

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Oil markets survived the Iran war sprint. Now comes the marathon

The Iran war is no longer a short-lived energy supply shock, but a prolonged, unpredictable test of global economic endurance.

2 weeks ago

A signpost is seen in Pantai Melayu village on Rempang Island, Batam city, Riau Islands, announcing that the Batam Free Trade Zone Authority (BP Batam) has the rights to manage the land, reportedly to be used as a Sekolah Rakyat location, as seen on July 15, 2026. BP Batam's unilateral claim is strenuously challenged by villagers, who say they own the land.

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The Land Bank paradox: For profit or justice?

Masked as agrarian reform, the national Land Bank is quietly dispossessing the rural poor to serve corporate profit, and a rushed new bill is about to make it permanent.

2 weeks ago

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