Highly exposed to shocks originating in the US, Global South countries often have to align their monetary policies with America’s, in order to maintain currency stability and manage dollar-denominated debts.

Indonesia’s ambitious vision for a trillion-rupiah creative economy is being strangled by a procurement system that still treats imagination like unskilled labor. The criminalization of videographer Amsal Sitepu exposes a dangerous value blind spot that must be fixed before the state’s bureaucracy bankrupts its own future.

In recent years, Indonesia has witnessed a series of policy reversals that, taken together, raise important questions about the consistency of its reform agenda.

Three weeks after the acid attack on Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (Kontras) activist Andrie Yunus, investigators have yet to clearly identify who bears ultimate responsibility. What has drawn particular attention is the resignation of the chief of the Strategic Intelligence Agency (BAIS), framed by the Indonesian Military (TNI) as a form of institutional accountability. Yet, this raises the critical question of whether the move reflects genuine responsibility-taking by the state or signals deeper power struggles within the military.

Indonesia’s decade of conservation progress is under threat as ambitious state projects drive a staggering 66 percent surge in deforestation.

The latest blunder of the Trump administration has essentially pushed key allies, including the Philippines, toward rethinking their relations with China, especially where energy is concerned.

Real progress for women in Indonesia requires moving past ceremonial greetings and toward structural reforms that dismantle patriarchal barriers and unlock the full economic power of the female workforce.

Elections are not enough to uphold democracy and civilian supremacy; civilian authority must be sustained by competence, integrity and delivery.

When the responsibility for insisting on basic ethical limits falls to private companies, the systems meant to protect the public interest from potentially dangerous technologies have clearly failed.

Every trillion spent compensating for global fertilizer price spikes is a trillion not invested in making Indonesian agriculture resilient.

A potentially widening budget deficit amid soaring global oil prices has prompted Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa to explore alternative revenue sources, including export duties on nickel and coal, commodities that are currently benefiting from relatively strong price trends. The push for rapid revenue mobilization, however, appears to be running ahead of sectoral readiness.

As the country's trash mountains reach a tragic breaking point, local grassroots successes offer a sustainable roadmap out of a looming national waste emergency.

If Indonesia withdraws from Lebanon in reaction to the death of the three peacekeepers, we are essentially saying their sacrifice means nothing.

Even when they were fluent in several languages, the language models retained their Western worldview.

Now that the Climate Change Bill has been included in this year's Prolegnas, it is up to our representatives to ensure that short-term economic interests cannot override ecological primacy, the very imbalance that has led to the climate crisis today.

Indonesia is practicing a balancing strategy, engaging multiple major powers simultaneously, not to hedge passively, but to actively expand its room for maneuver.

For decades, the US has nurtured the belief that it could wage wars abroad without exposing itself to the risk of serious retaliation.

As the collapse of old regimes and escalating tensions reshape the Middle East, the walls containing extremist threats are beginning to crumble. Indonesia must act now to bridge the gap between global geopolitical shifts and domestic security before "strategic ambiguity" turns into a national crisis.

While the world watches oil prices and insurance premiums in the Strait of Hormuz, 20,000 seafarers are trapped in a humanitarian crisis unfolding in plain sight. It is time to stop insuring the cargo and start protecting the people who move the world.

Gold miner Agincourt Resources, part of diversified conglomerate Astra International, was recently given the go-ahead from the Environment Ministry and the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry to resume operations at its Martabe gold mine in North Sumatra, following an earlier sanction over alleged environmental breaches. However, reports reveal that neither ministry had ever issued a decree to formally revoke Agincourt’s business permits.

As brutal violence replaces petty theft in Bali’s headlines, the island faces a reckoning over public safety. With international travel advisories mounting, provincial leaders must decide if they will protect their guests or continue to deflect responsibility.

True diplomacy is more than a calculation of interests. It is a commitment to stand together when the world is at its most fragile.

The criminal complaint filed in Jakarta has a solid factual basis, presenting clear evidence of genocidal acts against the Rohingya people, corroborated with reports from the United Nations.

The message of Easter isn't just a story of ancient ritual; it is the ultimate example of disruptive innovation: The resurrection broke a closed system of access to create a new, radical architecture of grace and public consequence.

Both Trump and Putin miscalculated how the conflict would play out, and each is now struggling to devise some face-saving way to escape the hole he has dug for himself.

Prabowo’s visit to these two nations was overdue. Fortunately, he was still able to reap concrete economic benefits from these East Asian nations, although I believe he could have secured even more had Indonesia not taken them for granted.

The government has beaten speculators and hoarders by announcing that it will not increase domestic gasoline prices, a move that has made Indonesia a regional outlier when neighboring countries have hiked theirs in response to soaring global oil prices.