If URI is not intended to function as a conventional university, what exactly distinguishes it from institutions that already train public leaders? If it is, why establish a new university rather than strengthen existing ones?

The job requires not only technical expertise in economics but also judgement, communication, crisis management and political independence. 

Connect the dots and a deeper question emerges: Is the country shifting toward a command model of economic governance?

Indonesia's contribution should be to insist on what actually makes nuclear peace hold: declaratory transparency, no-first-use commitments, verified command-and-control safeguards and working crisis hotlines between adversaries.

President Prabowo Subianto has once again taken what many observers describe as an impulsive policy step, raising eyebrows among academics and policy experts. This time, the controversy surrounds the establishment of the University of the Republic of Indonesia (URI), a project announced without any publicly available policy study or broad institutional consultation.

Partnerships with China, not protectionism, will determine affordable, interoperable and equitable global decarbonization and energy security.

Filipinos in Europe are enjoying the kind of governance that elevates human rights on a pedestal. But back home, why do they rabidly support the most fascist and the most murderous leader the Philippines has ever produced?

More than a tropical resort, Bali is a living philosophy, and it's time to reclaim its culture from the lens of Western tourism.

Once again, President Donald Trump is subverting domestic and international law in an effort to seize a larger fraction of global value and supply chains, this time on the hypocritical pretext of forced labor.

By transforming the free nutritious meal program from a centralized distribution chain into a community-rooted model, the nation can feed its children while also empowering its farmers and regional economies.

The moral panic over private LGBT lives misdirects state power away from genuine threats like corruption and pervasive sexual abuse. In a civilized society, citizens deserve privacy and safety in their homes, while public spaces continue to honor shared cultural norms

Retirement savings are meant to provide financial security in old age. Yet Indonesia's renewed debate over the Old-Age Savings (JHT) program has focused largely on tax rates and thresholds, overlooking a more fundamental question: Should the state tax retirement savings at all? In a country where fewer than half of workers participate in the formal social security system, the issue goes beyond taxation to retirement security itself.

The press exists to fulfill the wholly democratic role of providing checks and balances.

Southeast Asia’s nuclear push locks countries into long-term strategic alignments, reshaping regional autonomy as major powers compete for influence.

Provinces know their own resources, their needs and their communities in ways no minister in Jakarta can. 

Large-scale food fortification is one of the most effective, affordable and evidence-based strategies to address micronutrient deficiencies. 

When a country crosses the World Bank’s threshold from low- to middle-income status, it is deemed too rich to qualify for aid, even though it is not yet rich enough to cover its health costs.

Treating Jakarta's entry into China's onshore debt market as a routine fiscal transaction misses the deeper structural evolution underway in Southeast Asia. 

Concluding a South China Sea Code of Conduct simply to meet a deadline would be a serious mistake. A weak, vague agreement could be worse than no agreement at all.

Indonesia is preparing to introduce E20, a gasoline blend containing 20 percent fuel ethanol, even as it continues to import sugar to meet domestic food demand. The initiative seeks to replicate the success of the country's biodiesel mandate by reducing reliance on imported gasoline while creating new demand for domestic agricultural commodities.

Prabowo needs to restore BI’s leadership to a technocrat who can reassure markets and investors that the central bank’s independence remains intact.

Changes that took millions of years can now happen in a matter of decades, and this accelerated rythm can be destructive, with dangerous consequences for the planet.

The government's push for establishment of 80,000 village cooperatives will only succeed if top-down state ambition gives way to genuine, bottom-up member control.

Recent US behavior, acting as if the ICC can be trusted against an enemy, but never against a friend, ignores that the Rome Statute rests on complementarity.

Democracy does not require citizens to think alike. But it requires something more fundamental: disagreement cannot become a justification for denying equal citizenship.

Genuine freedom requires order under law and that order must begin with the powerful

Earlier this month a coalition of academics, activists and professionals did something no civil society group in the country's post-authoritarian history has attempted: they appointed their own cabinet.