From raging wildfires to simmering revolts in the regions, a hyper-centralized Jakarta is driving the country toward a dangerous breaking point that harks back to past policy failures.

The Prabowo administration's sudden, vague overhaul of commodity exports is the latest policy whiplash rattling investor confidence, proving once again that ad hoc governance comes at a steep economic price.

Kalimantan’s land fires aren’t just down to El Niño; they are caused by the soil losing its ability to hold water. Prevention must start by restoring the soil’s natural balance.

India and its biggest neighbor in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, have launched a unique initiative to expand collaboration in start-ups, deep-tech innovation, artificial intelligence and talent development that could lead to joint projects and creative initiatives by youth in the two large democracies of the Global South.  

Beyond the resorts and glossy brochures, the PKP Community Center offers vulnerable Balinese women a lifeline of empowerment, community and hope.

Other financial systems have only so much capacity to receive a large and rapid reallocation without destabilizing themselves.

Factories were supposed to build Indonesia’s modern workforce. But as industrial job growth stalls, village spending, not factory floors, is keeping the economy afloat.

Despite years of constitutional reform and judicial intervention, the state's reflexive tendency to criminalize criticism of those in power remains alive and well.

The government is pursuing a two-pronged strategy to strengthen energy security: reducing dependence on fuel imports through the mandatory B50 biodiesel policy while reforming fuel subsidies to make them more targeted toward lower-income households. Both policies, however, come with challenges. The B50 program, which combines 50 percent palm oil-based biofuel with 50 percent fossil-fuel diesel, could increase domestic demand for crude palm oil (CPO), potentially affecting exports and cooking oil prices. Meanwhile, the government’s planned restrictions on subsidized fuel purchases have raised questions about the accuracy of household welfare assessments used to determine eligibility.

President Prabowo Subianto was marketed as a bold foreign policy visionary, but his record reveals an administration driven by reactive damage control rather than strategic global leadership.

Indonesia’s labor market resembles a polished façade concealing deeper cracks. Official figures show headline unemployment falling, yet the recovery has not created enough quality jobs for the country’s growing educated workforce. Education has long been seen as the first step up the social ladder, opening the way to secure employment and a better life. Today, however, more than 1 million university graduates are unemployed, exposing a troubling reality: A degree no longer reliably opens the doors it once promised.

What started with the death of young woman in a traffic accident has escalated into a general protest about a lack of accountability for the powerful.

A thirty-year silence from nuclear testing was not an accident of history—it was a fragile choice that the world must urgently choose to keep.

A capable state must do more than deliver programs, it must ensure that all citizens can hold power accountable and participate as equals.

The puzzle of why the Trump administration is so concerned with a falling yen has historical parallels not to the 1930s or the 1980s, but to the 1960s, when US officials feared that a crisis elsewhere could spread to America. With US bond yields spiking, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is getting desperate.

The current global order will not reborn from the bottom-up, top-down or from the Global South, but it will come down to middle powers that have the most to lose from a decline of global governance and have the most power to actually change it, according to Munich Security Conference (MSC) CEO Benedikt Franke.

To turn a historic paper pact into real Indo-Pacific deterrence, Washington and Jakarta must move beyond symbolic drills to build a high-tech, gray-zone defense partnership that respects Indonesia’s strategic nonalignment.

On Aug. 15 three prominent businessmen toured a site in Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan, reportedly to scout potential mining sites. They were tycoon Haji Isam, PT Bayan Resources owner Dato’ Low Tuck Kwong and defense entrepreneur Norman Joesoef. The meeting quickly sparked speculation that Haji Isam was interested in acquiring a 62 percent majority stake in Bayan Resources.

Great-power conflict won’t hit Southeast Asia with battleships first—it will arrive through hollowed-out commodity prices, flooded domestic markets and a battered rupiah.

Indonesians confront mounting economic hardship despite official assurances that all is well. Many are confused: the reassurances from officials do not match the reality of their daily lives.

As millions choke on toxic air, the real threat to Indonesia’s lungs isn't just distant wildfires—it's the coal plants and industrial polluters running unchecked right next door.

Rice prices have trended upward for the past seven months despite the Prabowo Subianto administration’s claim that Indonesia has achieved rice self-sufficiency. The price increase has occurred even as rice stocks held by the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) remain high. The trend could intensify as an El Niño-induced dry season brings worsening drought conditions, potentially disrupting harvests and putting further upward pressure on rice prices.

Beneath Indonesia’s booming headline growth lies a dangerous paradox: its middle class is quietly collapsing, threatening both the nation’s economic dream and its democratic stability.

For those born after the Helsinki agreement, peace is not something remembered as being won through intense political negotiation and sacrifice. It is simply the default baseline of existence.

A great power that loses access to adjudication substitutes its own power. A middle power that loses it has nothing to substitute. 

While framed as a strategy to attract top global talent, Indonesia’s push for dual citizenship hinges not on political vision, but on whether lawmakers can navigate the constitutional and statutory safeguards required to make it work.

As artificial intelligence accelerates, Indonesia’s top ranking in global flourishing challenges our definition of progress, proving that true wellbeing is measured by community and connection, not just technological might.