American hegemony has given way to a new formulation based on rivalry and competition among several major powers, where there is no longer a fixed, codified set of rules.

Human rights abuses are no longer confined by national borders, yet the institutions tasked with addressing them remain largely bound by them.

While political rhetoric and insider deals create a comfortable narrative in Jakarta, global markets are marking that reality to market—and forcing a weakening rupiah to pay the bill.

Indonesia's banking sector appears to be recovering, with credit growth returning to double digits in May. Yet beneath the encouraging headline, households face mounting financial pressure as consumer lending slows, layoffs rise, savings decline and purchasing power weakens. The contrast highlights a broader challenge: A banking recovery does not necessarily signal an improvement in the real economy.

As the protracted Mideast conflict continues to send economic shock waves across the globe, ASEAN must leverage its diplomatic weight to restore international law vis-à-vis the Hormuz strait before power politics dictates the world's most vital waterway.

The renewed disruption to traffic through Hormuz has once again choked off regional exports, threatening hopes for a recovery in Asian or Middle Eastern refinery activity.

As open economies, Chile and Indonesia understand that globalization must become more inclusive, resilient and sustainable, ensuring that its benefits reach a broader range of people and communities.

Spain’s World Cup triumph reveals a crucial lesson for a divided Malaysia: true national unity isn't built by erasing our differences, but by playing for the same goal.

Like every major economy, China does use industrial policy, and its subsidies have mattered. But subsidies are no longer the most convincing explanation for Chinese firms’ growing competitiveness.

For Indonesia’s new financial hub to become a global powerhouse rather than an ambitious policy fantasy, the nation must offer investors what matters most: unyielding legal certainty.

The PLN scandal was not an isolated event, but rather the tip of an iceberg of systematic kickbacks and case-brokering spanning the country's largest financial scandals.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) issues have once again surged to the forefront of Indonesia's political and social discourse. Two recent, overlapping developments warrant close examination: the formal classification of the "spread of LGBTQ culture" as a nonmilitary threat under the national defense policy, and a concerted legislative push to introduce criminal sanctions targeting LGBTQ people and advocacy.

As Indonesia leaps blindly into a world-first B50 biodiesel mandate, the Prabowo administration’s high-stakes gamble for energy independence risks triggering domestic supply crunches, market instability and environmental fallout.

Blue carbon involves more than just counting carbon. It requires governance, finance, policy and practice. Ultimately, success hinges on people and their skills.

As two BRICS giants vie to build Indonesia’s first spaceport, Jakarta stands at a crossroads: it must swiftly finalize its regulatory framework and secure vital technology transfers to transform its equatorial advantage into sovereign spacefaring power.

As the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences convenes in Jakarta, the Asian Catholic Church faces a historic opportunity to turn the ideals of interfaith harmony and digital-age human dignity into a concrete regional roadmap for social justice.

As the boundaries that once separated sectors become blurred, prosperity increasingly depends on how economies build the ecosystems that sustain technological progress and nurture new productive capacity.

The issue has evolved from a purely humanitarian concern into one of information credibility and international diplomacy.

While President Prabowo’s high-profile global engagement boosts Indonesia’s visibility, relying on personal charisma over institutional diplomacy risks undermining the long-term credibility of the nation's foreign policy.

Fourteen months after President Prabowo Subianto unveiled the Red and White Cooperatives (KDMP) program as a vehicle for rural economic empowerment, the initiative increasingly resembles not a grassroots cooperative movement but a large-scale fiscal and governance experiment whose long-term sustainability remains uncertain.

Defined by controversial refereeing, political tensions and record-breaking scoring, the just-concluded 2026 World Cup proved to be as compelling off the pitch as it was on it.

The lesson here is about strategy: superior firepower can fail against an adversary built to survive.

How Indonesia can move from celebrating a flagship anti-poverty program to actually finding out whether it works.

Faced with a plummeting rupiah and shifting global markets, Indonesia must halt its erratic policymaking and institutional erosion before it permanently loses the vital game of investor confidence.

Some institutional failures unfold not through scandal but procedure, with acts of sabotage dressed up in the language of good-faith inquiry and accountability.

As the TNI swaps rigid seniority for an ill-defined model of "meritocracy," the rhetoric of professional advancement increasingly serves as a convenient cover for dynastic privilege and political patronage.

Indonesia will never defeat corruption by simply locking up individual officials; it must dismantle the resilient, invisible networks that keep the system alive.