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Thoughts on foreign policy post-President Joko Widodo
The new government assuming responsibilities in October 2024 can benefit from a "wait until the dust settles" approach, especially in anticipation of the prescribed foreign policies and diplomatic overtures.
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Future leader: President-elect and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto attends an iftar gathering during Ramadan fasting month at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on March 28, 2024. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo hosted the gathering with guests including his ministers, state agencies as well as military and police chiefs. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
"Wait until the dust settles" was a saying frequently used by former foreign minister Marty Natalegawa. He reasoned that one must allow time to reflect before deciding the course of diplomatic action amid international developments.
The new government assuming responsibilities in October 2024 can benefit from this approach, especially in anticipation of the prescribed foreign policies and diplomatic overtures.
While the entire cycle of the election process is still awaiting the Constitutional Court's final verdict, it is opportune at this juncture to ponder these issues. This is relevant, considering that our political system does not operate in a vacuum as we are part of a larger and dynamic global ecosystem.
One of these dynamics includes the prolonged dehumanization of the Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied territories by the apartheid Israeli regime. Another that comes to mind is the escalation of tension between Russia and NATO, which has been further exacerbated following the recent terrorist attack in Moscow.
With the prolongation of the war in Ukraine, along with a doomsday scenario of nuclear war, the level of anxiety among those living in the Northern Hemisphere has increased. In a mutually assured destruction (MAD) scenario, the use of nuclear armaments by nuclear powers is not off the table. There is always a concern that rational decisionmakers will act irrationally.
Although situated far from the ongoing wars, Indonesian elites are not indifferent to or in denial about the adverse effects of those conflicts globally. Indonesia's foreign policy outlook, which is internationalism, is deeply rooted in its long history of building a nation-state from the ashes of World War II.
Indonesia's independence resulted from a two-pronged approach: a revolutionary or armed struggle against the Dutch colonial power and a sustained diplomatic struggle to win international support.
