In 2026, Indonesia is in the position to recalibrate the region’s preparedness and response toward disasters and strengthen the region’s blueprint for a resilient future. 

The government has set a 6 percent growth target for 2026, banking on accelerated public spending and tighter fiscal-monetary coordination to generate momentum, in line with President Prabowo Subianto’s ambition to lift economic expansion to 8 percent by the end of his term in 2029. The challenge, however, lies less in ambition than in execution: whether these policy tools can deliver real growth in an economy where household demand remains fragile and investment responses uneven.

A big question for American exceptionalism is whether Trump is an aberration or a sign of where the US is headed.

A ministry tasked with safeguarding core elements of education receives far less state funding than a presidential pet program, which endures oversight failure from the beginning.

Without sufficient investment, many Asian nations risk perpetuating disparities in cervical cancer prevention and care, leaving women in low-resource settings at highest risk. 

For years, Indonesia has looked toward Thailand as a model for agriculture and tourism. It is time we apply that same humility to Vietnam. 

The prospects for the people of Myanmar look grim after the multistage elections ended on Sunday, as their country is dominated by the military junta and hemmed in by competing great power interests and a softening stance among some ASEAN members.

Jakarta’s Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Japan and its analogous agreement with Australia are important examples of the responsible exercise of middle-power status. 

Indonesia’s expensive bet may ultimately prove the more strategic choice for a nation building the infrastructure of its urban future. 

The Board of Peace can become either a procedural pause before larger conflicts erupt or a genuine multilateral platform rooted in justice, inclusion and shared responsibility.

In many SOEs, leakages persist because decisions live in gray zones: exceptions become routine, documentation becomes negotiable and accountability becomes diffuse.

Our past presidents used anti-foreigner narratives only to sustain power that enabled them to remain in office for decades. 

Beyond the headlines of the IDX's sudden plunge lies a deeper story of thin tradable supply, where market mechanics and global index rules have turned low-float stocks into dangerous volatility amplifiers.

The government is currently revising the subsidy scheme for the sea toll program amid concerns that it has fallen short of its objectives. Introduced by the administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, the program aims to improve national logistics connectivity and narrow price disparities between Western and Eastern Indonesia, where goods have been traditionally more expensive than on Java. After nearly a decade of implementation, however, price gaps have barely shifted, raising questions about the effectiveness of the subsidy.

The use of degraded lands decouples economic development from deforestation, strengthens rural livelihoods and positions Indonesia as a global leader in nature-positive development.

Gold ETFs offer a modern solution to the strucutural hurdles of accessibility and liquidity as regards traditional gold investment in Indonesia, ensuring securty for all investors as they turn to safe-haven assets amid ongoing economic fragility.

When the government tends to do something rather than do nothing, we must be more cautious about the dangers of doing too much.

As a nation born of anticolonial struggle, Indonesia cannot afford moral complacency or strategic naïveté.

The government is currently drafting the Bill on Prevention of Disinformation and Foreign Propaganda as part of President Prabowo Subianto’s efforts to contain potential threats to national political stability. However, the initiative risks undermining citizens’ right to access information, as such regulations are prone to elastic interpretations and potential abuse by law enforcement agencies.

The government and stakeholders must act now to protect archeological sites on Sulawesi from a growing list of threats, from climate change to mining. 

Indonesia’s future economic growth will not be determined solely by the size of government spending, but also by how effectively development financing is managed.

Peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are extremely important for the stability of the region, including Indonesia, and the entire international community.

Increased power, perhaps counterintuitively, appears to breed increased fear of weaker competitors. This can trigger preventive action such as foreign interventions that, to outsiders, may look illogical.

ASEAN will now need to make decisions about its future purpose and whether it will seek to restore the established order or strike out in a new direction. 

The Greenland saga shows that the post-Cold War assumption that alliances and international norms would reliably restrain power politics is eroding.

The failure to settle the BLBI scandal beyond doubt shows that the state has opted for accommodation over confrontation, appearing more fearful of unsetting entrenched economic elites than of losing public funds.

The President's recent instruction to formulate a bill to combat disinformation and "foreign propaganda" walks a fine line between the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression and ratified international agreements stipulating the standards that must be met before basic rights can be legislatively curtailed.