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.

Disillusioned youth are turning to radical ideologies—and our best defense is restoring purpose through meaningful civic engagement

Despite apocalyptic headlines and political rhetoric, global satellite data reveals the planet is on track for its quietest fire season in more than a century.

Much like The Economist’s Big Mac Index, tracking the price of a standard packet of nasi lemak reveals the true story of Malaysia’s domestic purchasing power far better than quarterly GDP figures.

The more difficult question is what allows sovereignty to endure not merely as an assertion of authority, but as a political relationship in which citizens can see themselves. 

A successful village-first economic agenda requires transforming raw internet access into real opportunity before millions of disengaged young Indonesians are left behind.

When the ground violently shifts, the words we choose can either steady a community’s collective courage or trigger a devastating humanitarian aftershock of panic.

Prabowo could hope to relive Soeharto’s era by recentralizing the government and strengthening the military, two pillars that had defined Soeharto’s New Order, while slowly erasing regional autonomy and freedom of speech, the two key achievements during the post-Soeharto democratization, also known as the Reform Era.

Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has once again injected liquidity into Indonesia’s banking system, placing an additional Rp 70 trillion (US$4.3 billion) in state budget surplus funds with state-owned banks. The measure is intended to spur lending to the real sector and, ultimately, accelerate economic growth. Yet its effectiveness remains uncertain, raising a fundamental question: Can another liquidity injection genuinely revive credit growth, or is Purbaya mistaking the symptom for the cause in a classic chicken-and-egg problem?

From million-rupiah shallots to unverified nuclear claims, President Prabowo Subianto's off-script habits are turning presidential rhetoric into viral punchlines - and putting the nation’s credibility on the line.

The oil market is increasingly behaving as though disruptions to Middle East energy supplies are not a temporary shock but a new reality.

The question confronting policymakers is no longer whether governments should own corporations, but how they should govern them.

For now, the pact’s principal strength may lie in its political message and deterrent effect.

Rather than a genuine check, the Constitutional Court provides a strategic runway for legislative engineering, allowing the executive branch to bypass immediate fiscal discipline while public attention cools, over the education fund.

The state is spending billions to guard its borders against foreign adversaries, while leaving its own citizens stranded when the earth beneath them gives way.