United States President Donald Trump looks on during an event in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on Sept. 2, 2025.

How authoritarians twist language into weapons

As populist strongmen rise across democracies, Camus’ warnings against the corruption of truth and language feel newly relevant.

4 months ago

Academia premium

When school lunches become a battlefield

A policy that should be as uncontroversial as “feed children well” has been turned into a stage for point-scoring, institutional turf wars and media skirmishes. ...

4 months ago

Academia

Drone defense gap sparks industry surge

Events have also shown enormous capacity gaps when it comes to wider air defense, including antiaircraft rockets to shoot down incoming missiles. ...

4 months ago

The Latest

Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim delivers a speech on July 29 at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta.

Academia premium

Principled diplomacy: Anwar engages Trump at ASEAN Summit

Trump’s presence at the ASEAN Summit is not about endorsement or approval of his policies. It is, instead, a moment of strategic diplomacy.

4 months ago

A general view shows diplomats attending the 32nd ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) during the 58th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Malaysia, on July 11, 2025.

Academia premium

Securing the ASEAN economy in an oversecuritized world

Daily conversation in ASEAN now revolves around how to walk a fine line between avoiding overdependence and co-optation by any major power for their own agenda.

4 months ago

Attendees tour stands at the GTC Paris NVIDIA booth on June 12 at the VivaTech technology start-ups and innovation fair at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, in Paris.

Academia premium

Are we in a financial bubble?

Financial bubbles are notoriously difficult to define in real time – until the moment they burst.

4 months ago

Academia premium

Bridging science and diplomacy for global leadership

Uniting science and diplomacy is needed to create lasting global impact.

4 months ago

Cabinet ministers under President Prabowo Subianto take their oaths of office during a swearing-in ceremony at the State Palace in Jakarta on Oct. 21, 2024. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)

Academia premium

Patronage or expertise: Indonesia’s bureaucracy at a crossroads

Every regime born of electoral democracy proclaims its faith in meritocracy, a system that values competence over connection, and professionalism over political convenience, but Indonesia tells a different story.

4 months ago

An elementary school student receives a COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 18, 2022, in Surabaya, East Java.

Academia premium

Beyond fire brigades: Financing prevention, not panic

The world needs development banks and financial institutions to move from post-disaster reimbursement to pre-disaster readiness.

4 months ago

A deforested area that will be converted into a sugar cane plantation by PT Murni Nusantara Abadi, directly threatening the adjacent customary forest protected by the Kwipalo Clan, is seen in this photo taken in Mandiri Jagebob, Merauke regency, South Papua, on March 17, 2025.

Academia premium

The South's survival manifesto, 50 years on

At Cocoyoc, postcolonial nations challenged the West’s obsession with growth. Fifty years later, Brazil’s forest initiative revives that original call for justice and survival.

4 months ago

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (right, standing) and President Prabowo Subianto shake hands on July 9, 2025, during the Brazil-Indonesia bilateral meeting at Planalto Palace in Brasília.

Academia premium

Brazil and ASEAN: Together for a prosperous and peaceful future

Ahead of the 47th ASEAN Summit on Oct. 26 in Kuala Lumpur, the Brazilian president shares his views about areas in which his country and the regional grouping can cooperate toward building a sustainable future of prosperity and peace.

4 months ago

Academia premium

A blueprint for a stronger, more relevant ASEAN

What could pass to history as the “Anwar Doctrine” could be a reminder that the Asia Pacific is a true engine of multipolarism, not a disruptor of it.

4 months ago

President Prabowo Subianto (right) and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attend a joint press conference at the State Palace in Jakarta on May 15, 2025.

Academia premium

Rethinking Indonesia-Australia economic diplomacy

Many Australian businesses still view Indonesia as "too hard", despite recent reforms offering competitive incentives such as tax holidays, import duty exemptions, and super tax deductions.

4 months ago

Job seekers speak with career counselors on June 24, 2025, during the Grand Career Exhibition held by Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java.

Academia premium

The shadow rise of ‘homo inutilis’: An Indonesian perspective

Indonesia needs to look closely at the interrelation between productivity and participation as technology moves apace and leaves humans lagging in both jobs and wages to avoid creating the "useless class".

4 months ago

Students of Roudlotul Solohin Pesantren (Islamic boarding school) from Demak gave a rebana tambourine performance to accompany the Mater Dei Church choir performance in Lamper Kidul on Dec. 25, 2019, in Semarang, Central Java.

Academia premium

‘Pesantren’ lead the new jihad to uphold peace

Many young people today grow up surrounded by misleading narratives, both online and in public discourse, that frame religion through the lens of fear or hostility.

4 months ago

An aerial photo shows an oil palm plantation (right) and a peatland forest in Bangsal village, Ogan Komering Ilir regency, South Sumatra, on June 10, 2025.

Academia

Forests depend on leadership, law and advocacy

How Indonesia and Brazil have cut down on deforestation.

4 months ago

President Prabowo Subianto speaks on Sept. 23 during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City.

Academia premium

Rethinking Pancasila’s ideological power for the future

President Prabowo’s focus - on food and energy security, defense modernization and economic sovereignty - instinctively recognizes the challenge to transform its founding philosophy, Pancasila, into a living force for competitiveness.

4 months ago

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, President Prabowo Subianto (front left) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin (front center) pose for a photograph alongside China's President Xi Jinping before a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Sept. 3, 2025.

Academia premium

As the world's grabby geezers unite, Gen Z is left in the dust

The anger is mostly directed against corruption and incompetence displayed by members of the ruling elite who seem to be oblivious to problems affecting these young people; from a lack of stable jobs to unaffordable housing, to a rising cost of living, genocide and the looming climate crisis.

4 months ago

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri welcomes secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto on Aug. 2 before the closing session of party congress in Nusa Dua, Bali. Just days before his appearance at the congress, Hasto, who was convicted of bribery on July 25, received an amnesty from President Prabowo Subianto.

Academia premium

Indonesia’s anticorruption fight: Serving politics, not justice

Instead of strengthening the law, lawmakers are now seeking to weaken it, as indicated in the move to revise the Anticorruption Law, which will shield powerful decision-makers from accountability as long as they avoid direct bribery.

4 months ago

President Prabowo Subianto addresses the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Sept. 23, 2025, at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

Academia premium

Indonesia’s UNGA climate pledge faces real test at home

While the President's address at the 80th UNGS signaled ambition, implementing the 2025-2034 RUPTL with de-risking mechanisms, clear financing solutions, a decisive move away from coal and other detailed steps is the real test.

4 months ago

Dayah Darul Quran Aceh 'pesantren' (Islamic boarding school) students attend a Quran recital at Gampong Tumbo Baro in Kuta Malaka, Aceh, on March 29, 2023. More than 220 students took part in the Quran Camping program, where they were trained to memorize portions of the holy text during Ramadan.

Academia premium

Rediscovering ‘pesantren’ subculture amid public scrutiny

Most pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) are evolving organically, seeking to balance their heritage with the demands of contemporary education and regulation.

4 months ago

Workers prepare meal packages on Oct. 10 under the free nutritious meal program at the Plaju Ulu II nutrition fulfillment service unit (SPPG) in Palembang, South Sumatra.

Academia premium

Seeing the world through ‘unimportant things’

Disputes and wars are not the only threats to stability. There are issues that are not limited to one against another, but that affect large swaths of humanity.

4 months ago

Palestinians ride on an animal-drawn cart on Oct. 16 past the rubble of destroyed buildings, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Palestine.

Academia

How an international security force in post-war Gaza could work

An international stabilization force is a central plank in the plans for post-war Gaza that have been put forward by US president Donald Trump.

4 months ago

An Indonesian military officer ('center') stands beside a truck carrying multivitamins to be used in the government's free nutritious meal program in Jakarta on Oct. 1, 2025.

Academia premium

Prabowo's securitization regime, how far will it go?

The provisions regarding military operations other than war are ambiguous, with implementation regulated by government or presidential regulations.

4 months ago

A becak (pedicab) driver delivers fish packed in plastic bags at a traditional fish market on Oct. 9 in Surabaya, East Java.

Academia

'Juiced out' bonds pushing money elsewhere?

The market mood of the moment is whether bubbles are being blown in riskier markets by loose fiscal and monetary policies that lift the inflation horizon for years to come.

4 months ago

President Prabowo Subianto (on stage, second left) applauds as United States President Donald Trump (on stage, eighth right) address the summit on Gaza peace process on Oct. 13 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Academia premium

Prabowo's high-speed diplomacy and Indonesia’s global ambition

For Prabowo, victory is measured not by contracts, but by Indonesia's position at the global negotiating table.

4 months ago

A deforested area that will be converted into a sugar cane plantation is seen on March 17 in this photo taken in Mandiri Jagebob, Merauke regency, South Papua.

Academia premium

The self-sufficiency agenda and the ecological paradox

After one year, Prabowo’s natural resource policies stand in the shadow of an ecological paradox.

4 months ago

Protestors wave the national flag and the Straw Hat Pirates flag from Japanese manga ‘One Piece’ during a violent protest outside the Jakarta Metropolitan Police headquarters in South Jakarta on Aug. 29, 2025, the day after ‘ojol’ (online motorcycle transportation) driver Affan Kurniawan was killed by a Jakarta Police Mobile Brigade vehicle.

Academia premium

The police are not even the biggest elephant in the room

One year into his presidency, Prabowo's broader agenda is evoking echoes of the "Smiling General".

4 months ago

Students use plastic bottles as pots to grow vegetables as part of the Ecolitera recycling and literacy program at SDN Papela elementary school in Rote Ndao regency, East Nusa Tenggara, in this undated handout photo.

Academia premium

Beyond the treaty table: Advancing action on plastic pollution

The lack of a global plastics treaty does not mean that people are standing idly by: communities, businesses and governments are already moving forward with national plans to tackle the scourge of plastic pollution.

4 months ago

Silhouettes of figurines with computers and smartphones appear in this illustration of artificial intelligence, created on Feb. 19, 2024.

Academia premium

AI is hollowing out higher education

Rather than a new technology, companies are promoting artificial intelligence by repackaging it again, this time by anthropomorphizing it and by default, dehumanizing our very ability to think for ourselves.

4 months ago

Page: 22