In country after country, political leaders increasingly dehumanize migrants and refugees, casting people fleeing poverty, persecution and conflict as a mortal threat.

As we look ahead to the legislative and judicial changes in 2026 with one eye toward the 2029 polls, perhaps it is time for the people to rethink what the current administration has accomplished with the sovereignty, political legitimacy and leeway we have granted it.

By building a wall to keep the leader happy, they effectively block him from seeing reality.

We do believe that the President would be able to deliver his March deadline and people will wait patiently as long as they are convinced by the ongoing process.

In Indonesia, education policy continues to expand labor supply rapidly, but industrial policy, investment incentives and labor market institutions have not evolved in tandem.

The intellectual capacity of NU leadership is essential if the group is to formulate substantive responses to extremism, social inequality and the ethical challenges of technological change. 

Indifference to privacy violations is not apathy; it is habituation - the natural outcome of a society trained to comply rather than to question.

China should demonstrate strength through endurance and patience, playing the long game, otherwise, aggressive dynamics can backfire.

Landfills should operate only for residual waste, making disposal a last resort rather than a primary solution.

Over the next five years, we have an opportunity to pull back from the brink and ensure that the ocean continues to stabilize the climate, feed billions of people and support the livelihoods of coastal communities.

The region's hotels are poised to enter 2026 with an ongoing momentum based on experiential resilience, and Indonesia is foundationally geared toward innovating to accommodate a new crop of discerning domestic travelers.

As Vedi Hadiz has noted, decentralization has produced local oligarchies, new centers of power growing from old patronage networks. 

It has been proven throughout history that statistics is essential to statecraft and in the Indonesian context of today's digital era, greater openness is key to building credibility and trust.

Meaningful reform in the Prabowo administration would require not only a reshuffle but a reduction in size, a step that would signal seriousness about governance over optics.

This is how Indonesia is governed now: by spectacle so crude it dares the public to object, by narratives so inflated they collapse under their own weight, by numbers waved around like talismans against doubt.

Why does Indonesia appear so keen to protect its pride by refusing bilateral assistance?

Nearly a year on since the launch of the free meals program, several studies point to an opportunity for policy learning: scaling the program toward its envisioned targets by placing women at its heart.

As countries shift away from multilateral cooperation as the world grows more multipolar, organizations that are mission-driven, involve multiple stakeholders and founded on a spirit of partnership will become ever more necessary to face contemporary challenges.

More than 200 people have been charged for disrupting or opposing the polls in Myanmar under a new law that carries severe penalties, including the death sentence.

Disaster risk reduction should be embedded in policymaking, especially industrial and spatial planning, to prevent economic activities from damaging the environment and thereby exacerbating the impacts of future calamities.

Indonesia may face a tax revenue shortfall this year, as recent data show the country had realized only 74.62 percent of its annual tax target as of November, underscoring mounting difficulties in sustaining revenue growth amid global and domestic economic headwinds. The World Bank Group (WBG) has projected Indonesia's tax ratio, the share of tax revenue in gross domestic product (GDP), to fall to 9.4 percent in 2025, down from 10.1 percent in 2024. The downward trend is a worrying signal for future state spending, particularly as the government rolls out costly flagship programs that risk widening the fiscal deficit.

The police chief's signing a regulation that counters a court ruling prohibiting active-duty officers from holding a civilian post is a blatant act of disrespect toward the rule of law.

China’s growing appetite for durian is giving this famously divisive fruit political power.

From cybercrime and disasters to an elfin plush toy trend, here are some of the worst and best to happen in the Indo-Pacific throughout the year.

The US under the Trump administration has emerged as a global hegemon alongside China, albeit with different drivers, afflicting the rest of the world with limited opportunities, especially developing countries.

A merger between Grab and GoTo would result in significant market concentration, creating a new entity with up to 99 percent market share in Indonesia's ride-hailing and food delivery sectors 

The way we understand humanitarian crises determines whether we truly attempt to resolve them, or merely manage them so they remain tolerable.