This work analyses Pope John Paul II’s contributions and attitudes as an international relations Actor. In this context, the research question that guides this work is as follows in terms of global governance, how did the conduct carried out by Pope John Paul II strengthen him as a Model Power? John Paul II inaugurated a new phase of the Vatican’s foreign policy. His diplomacy in mediation and conflict resolution stands out as a fundamental pillar of his pontificate, contributing to the fall of the communist regime in Poland and many other conflicts such as the mediation of the Holy See in the Beagle Channel, Falklands War, Gulf Wars and Balkan War. In the religious dominion, John Paul II intensified inter-religious dialogue with Jewish, Muslim and Buddhists. Regarding Papal trips, they played an extremely relevant role not only from a religious perspective but also from a political and social perspective. Protecting the environment and life was also among John Paul II’s concerns. The Pope clarified that the Church cannot be indifferent to how humans relate to nature. In summary, the words of John Paul II had a significant impact on the political world and civil society, with him being considered a great statesman of the 20th century; in this sense, he could be viewed as a relevant actor in international relations and a Model Power.
This article briefly explains the correlation between Ethiopia’s ambitious GERD project and the potential shift in power distribution in the region known as the Horn of Africa. The GERD (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam) is a hydroelectric dam designed to drive economic growth by harnessing the Nile River as its core. Focusing on a regional-level analysis, this article will examine the relationship between the completion of the project and the shift in power distribution between Egypt as the local status-quo power, and Ethiopia as the regional challenger. Thus, the dramatic transition in regional structure is related to categorizing the Nile River as a finite natural resource. Using the multiple hierarchy model derived from power transition theory, this article sees that Egypt and Ethiopia view the Nile River as their primary national interest. Both countries perceive the reduced access to the river’s water as an existential threat to their sovereignty and safety. Thus, The GERD project becomes an instrument for Ethiopia to enhance its structural position as a challenger to Egyptian hegemony and gain the right to a more equitable water allocation. Thus, the completion of the project could pose a real threat not only to Egypt’s structural position but also to its survival as a state.
Maritime routes in Kepulauan Riau Province, Indonesia, serve as pivotal entry points for narcotics trafficking and smuggling within the Southeast Asian region. This study delves into the establishment and evolution of these illicit networks by examining three key variables: demographic and socio-economic characteristics, operating structures and classifications, methods, means, and funding sources. Leveraging an analysis of 355 court rulings records, the authors constructed a comprehensive dataset encompassing these variables. The findings underscore the intricate nature of narcotics trafficking networks, spanning from production to distribution, with involvement at various levels across diverse demographics. Notably, the exorbitant earnings potential, with couriers fetching up to 700 million rupiahs, underscores the financial allure of the narcotics trade. Moreover, the research elucidates the pivotal role of public transportation modes, including ships, planes, and speed boats, in facilitating these illicit activities. Furthermore, the intricate web of relationships among defendants, ranging from familial to social ties, underscores the complex nature of these networks. The authors argue that effective law enforcement and prevention strategies necessitate a nuanced understanding of these social dynamics to combat narcotics operations effectively. The implication is that law enforcement and prevention must focus on specific individuals or groups and recognize patterns of social relationships utilized in narcotics operations.
Following the Asian Crisis, many believed that the era of the developmental state model had ended. However, amidst debates of pros and cons, there was a strong tendency to observe that, before the Jokowi administration, several Indonesian government policies were highly interventionist. This article examines the possibility that the developmental state model will no longer continue in Indonesia, which is merely a myth. Using a qualitative research approach that draws on various literature, including data from 2022–2024 and field research findings in Indonesia during the 2015–2021 period, this article argues that the developmental model has evolved toward a more practical and pragmatic approach. However, this article takes a different perspective than previous literature on Indonesia's developmental state model. By focusing on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as PT Perkebunan Nusantara, PT Semen Indonesia, and PT Pertamina, the article highlights three main points: first, the formation of holding companies enables SOEs to become strong economic players; second, the ambition behind the creation of these holdings is political; and third, the expansion trend reflects the government’s commitment to strengthening the role of SOEs in national development. These three points indicate that Indonesia has transformed into a neo-developmental state model, at least since the SBY administration, followed by Jokowi. Ultimately, although the global expansion policy faces challenges, this does not signify the failure of Indonesia as a developmental state.
This article discusses China’s foreign policy toward African countries by examining Sino-Tanzanian South-South Cooperation (SSC). By utilising a modified, state-centric social constructivism, this study identifies domestic and international realms of China’s normative structure responsible for shaping China’s identities within the international community. It also explains how China can reconcile its competing identities between a Global South and rising great power statuses, which gives China the ability to combine its normative interest (i.e., Global South solidarity) and material interest (i.e., the geopolitical-geoeconomic strategy) into a diverse project of SSC with positive and proactive perception from Tanzania. This study contributes toward the theorisation of China’s SSC, China’s geopolitics-geoeconomy, and China’s foreign policy toward Africa at once. This study has shown that social constructivism can explain a reconciliation between a state’s normative obligation and material desire within the international community.
Globalization has brought about numerous changes to the world. However, those changes and advances have also been enjoyed by terrorist groups, one of them is ISIS which uses those things in its terror acts. This article seeks to explain how ISIS has adapted and enhanced its capacity as a result of globalization. Apart from employing the qualitative research method, this article also uses concepts and theories like terrorism, globalization, and James D. Kiras's theory on how globalization enhances terrorism. This article would then proceed to the three matters of ISIS as a threat to national and international security, how ISIS has developed as a result of globalization, and how despite its current state, it is still a threat to reckon with. First, ISIS has shown its uniqueness as a terrorist group in its capacity to adapt to globalization and concern with territories. The latter pushed it to utilize the former to strengthen its grasp on the territories it has taken over. Moving on, ISIS has grown in its mobility, lethality, proselytizing, coordination, and security. Finally, despite its decline, the international community is left with ISIS's remnants as well as the prospect of its reemergence.
This article presents a fresh perspective on international climate change negotiations by shining a light on the often-ignored concept of symbolic power within the role of middle powers, an area where current literature largely emphasizes behavioral and functional aspects. Focusing on Indonesia's participation in the 2018 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland, the study explores how the nation adeptly wielded symbolic power to champion the concerns of developing nations. Through strategic utilization of language and identity, Indonesia underscored three crucial negotiation points: financial support, technological transfer, and capacity building—all essential for achieving the Paris Agreement objectives. Indonesia's assertive narrative, which called for developed nations to honor their commitments to their less affluent counterparts, not only conveyed a powerful message but also enabled the country to leverage its middle power status effectively. By assuming a representative role for other developing nations, Indonesia facilitated consensus in the negotiations. This study broadens the middle power discourse, highlighting the function of symbolic power and its potential to reshape international climate policy.
This study analyses the trilateral cooperation among China, Japan, and Korea in the realm of environmental issues, focusing on the Trilateral Environment Ministers Meeting (TEMM) as the representative institution. Through a theoretical perspective based on rational design theory, this paper examines the rationality of TEMM's design and how it has addressed the enforcement problems and asymmetry of control among the three countries. The study also suggests some strategies for further deepening and empowering the trilateral cooperation, such as developing the environmental protection industry and carbon trading market, involving funds and non-state actors, and improving institutionalization. While acknowledging the achievements and limitations of trilateral cooperation, this paper calls for future research to employ different theories and cases to enhance our understanding of the dynamics among these three countries' cooperation.
International labour mobility has increased Indonesian female migrant domestic workers' involvement in transnational labour organisations. Because of their precarious work, advocacy and unions are crucial to protecting them overseas. This paper examines the debates on the political activism of Indonesian female domestic workers and discusses the gap that migration scholars have not yet addressed. The study's conceptual core employs the concept of migrant political transnationalism, which generates the intersection of migrant citizenship and receiving country sovereignty. The author has reviewed thirty journals using exclusion and inclusion criteria with a qualitative narrative literature review. Grassroots advocacy for Indonesian domestic workers primarily emerged in Hong Kong. On the one hand, territorial normativity and sovereignty in the receiving country may prohibit migrants from participating in politics. However, they still can engage in extra-electoral politics as non-citizens. Domestic workers advocate for their rights through lobbying, protests, and rallies. On the other hand, electoral political participation in homeland politics, which political transnational scholars rarely discuss, and their contribution to mobilising votes abroad is also necessary. This finding motivates the investigation's research agenda: Do Indonesian female domestic migrant workers engage with their electoral homeland politics?
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia marked a new turning point in the history of the 21st century and has had far-reaching effects for much of the globalized world. The intensity of such an unexpected and unprovoked war has made it crucial to seek out the reasons why Russia decided to wage war on Ukraine. As such, there is a need to look for a deeper origin of the conflict, especially the unique circumstances that led to such policy being pursued. A comprehensive and theoretical approach that connects all the dots into one chronological picture is required. To that end, this research attempts to analyze the war in Ukraine and explore the root causes of why Russia decided to invade, primarily through its internal perspective and the intervening variables that made it happen. It may serve as a reminder of how the compounding effects of a nation’s traumatic past, the corruption of power by its elites, the pacification of its civil society, and the hubris of its leaders, could lead to a disastrous and unforeseen outcome.
In the modern age, the police institution is utilised as the primary spearhead to combat multiple sources of possible disruptions for the general safety of the public. The Indonesian National Police (INP) as a member of the INTERPOL takes part in multitude of activities conducted by the international organization. Currently, the Indonesian National Police is facing a rising number in the cases of missing persons, unidentified remains and crimes against children with casualties not only from Indonesian nationalities, but also international citizens. The current shortcoming of national technicalities and mechanism may open up a structured and tangible operational help from the INTERPOL in order to increase the efficiency and efficacy of police investigation in Indonesia. This research employs the securitization theory and qualitative method of analysis, along with field research and desk research respectively. Analysis shows that the Indonesian National Police is in favor of the agenda proposed by the INTERPOL during the 90th INTERPOL General Assembly, specifically to increase operational quality of member states, while also supporting the securitization process by the INTERPOL before and during the 90th General Assembly.
This research aims to analyse Russian foreign policy toward Ukraine from 2014 to 2022. It uses a dual logical plural approach from Marxist IR Theory. This approach greatly emphasises the importance of two systemic logics, namely capitalism and geopolitics. Since this approach is used in the realm of foreign policy analysis, contextualisation of the level analysis is needed. In this case, the dual logical plural approach proposes a distinctive description of these levels of analysis. International condition refers to the imperialism of the present world order, domestic factor refers to the development of state capitalism, and actors refer to the alliance of political elite and capitalist class of state. Based on those distinctive features, this research concludes several crucial points. First, the expansionist economic manoeuvre of the European Union and the imperialist manoeuvre of the US played crucial roles in affecting Russia's foreign policy toward Ukraine from 2014-2022. Second, the specific history of Russian capitalism development, which gave birth to the emergence of regressive Caesarism, also plays a significant role. Third, the development of Ukraine's capitalism and its class dynamics play a central role in navigating Russia's or Western states' manoeuvres. The dominance of Western Ukraine, which particularly articulates the interests of Ukraine's middle class and Western states' geopolitical or economic interests, significantly forces Russia to change the nature of its policy from annexation to invasion
Despite the importance of labour migration in Southeast Asia, the mechanism of migrant workers protection in the region is still lacking. Because of that, cases show that often the undocumented and/or the low-skilled workers receive inappropriate treatment in the host countries. In certain cases, they were treated as second-class citizens – this is despite the work that they do. To address these issues, ASEAN has conducted a series of dialog forums and issued various agreements. In doing so, ASEAN have been involving different key stakeholders working on the issue, including international organizations, regional and national civil society organizations, and employers’ union. Unlike mainstream study which mainly focusses on the role of member states or ASEAN in developing regional mechanisms in the region, this research highlights the strategic role of International Labour Organizations (ILO). We argue that ILO is the powerful entities (aside of the member states) behind the region’s decision to pay more serious attention to the issue. This research shows how the ASEAN member states tend to be more open towards ILO’s involvement in their issues – while, because of the region’s norms of non-interference, they usually are reluctant to take any kind of external intervention to the region. Within this context, from the three possible type of roles of international organization in international system proposed by Clive Archer, i.e. as arena, instrument or actor, this article argues that ILO plays a role more as an actor that act independently to fill the gap left by the inability (unwillingness) of ASEAN member state to provide protection to their own migrant workers.
Geopolitical changes in the second decade of the 21st century have shifted the centre of international political power. Non-Western political power centres emerged and increased influence as the unipolar world transformed into a multipolar one. In contrast to the Cold War era, where ideology was the main instrument in dealing with Western influence, some contemporary geopolitical power centres carry the perception of historical glory as an important factor in their foreign policy, as demonstrated by Turkey under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with its neo-Ottomanism and Russia under Vladimir Putin with Eurasianism. By using discourse analysis methods on data collected through a literature review, this research finds that the perception of the historical glory of neo-Ottomanism and Eurasianism is important as a political bargaining instrument and shows opposition to Western unipolarity, even though there are differences in the level of coerciveness in the practices implemented by the two countries.
In 2019, the Indonesian Government proposed Ubud in Bali to become the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) 's prototype for a world gastronomic destination. It turned out that, despite its rich inventory of gastronomic assets and attractions, Ubud met with challenges when convincing UNWTO to give it the title. To deal with this problem, the Indonesian Government practised gastrodiplomacy to influence UNWTO to endorse Ubud as the world gastronomic destination. This research, therefore, aims to explain the implementation of Indonesia's gastrodiplomacy. By using a qualitative method with interpretative analysis in place, I argued that the Government used gastrodiplomacy to introduce diverse culture, history and tradition behind Balinese culinary delights, including the story about the spice trail, and used them as soft power to convince UNWTO that Ubud had ticked all the criteria of the world gastronomic destination. The Government saw the spice trail story as the strength of Ubud's gastronomic tourism because it can explain why Balinese dishes are rich in flavour, cultural and historical values. The Government also invited non-state actors to take part in the project. Though they did different strategies for implementing gastrodiplomacy, their collaboration strengthened Indonesia's gastrodiplomacy in convincing UNWTO to promote Ubud as the world gastronomic destination.
The concept of “Indo-Pacific” has been increasingly adopted in foreign policies during the past few years. Despite its multifaceted nature, China has consistently rejected the use of the Indo-Pacific concept in its official policy. Beijing’s attitude was reflected in Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s remarks that dismissed the Indo-Pacific as a “come-back of Cold War mentality” and “retrogression of history.” This study explains why China renounced the Indo-Pacific concept despite the increasing inclusion in defining the region. By employing realist constructivism theory, this paper finds that the prevalence of containment and anti-China narrative engenders Beijing’s threat perception to the concept. The dominant narratives in China’s regional strategy, such as “community of common destiny,” also affect how the country treats the Indo-Pacific as a Western-centric concept, aimed to limit China’s influence. Beyond seeking inclusion from the Indo-Pacific conception, China advances its own vision to the region. China’s vision is projected through the Belt and Road Initiatives and various concepts to shape regional order in Beijing's preference.
The international community encourages states to embrace the international cooperation to support and assist each other in reducing risks stemming from the digital divide. However, they cannot agree upon how international norms apply to cyberspace, let alone shaping and regulating international cybersecurity capacity building (CCB) assistance. States use international CCB assistance to impose cyber-norms based on their perceptions. It results in different forms of assistance provided by each donor country. Using social constructivism theory and the CCB concept as international assistance, this paper compares the practice of CCB assistance from two donor countries: Japan and South Korea. It emphasises the role of each donor country’s normative structure in shaping their identities, roles, interests, and behaviours in international CCB assistance. Japan’s international cybersecurity cooperation normative structure shapes Japan’s identities and roles that prioritise security-dominant normative and material interests. Meanwhile, South Korea’s developmental focus constructs the country’s identities and roles that shape developmental normative and material interests. This research finds that Japan’s assistance is highly security-oriented while South Korea’s is less security-oriented. Their differences highlight the fragmentation of global cyber-norms caused by different perception processes.
Since the 1970s, marine debris pollution has been considered a global environmental problem because of the serious threat it poses. Based on 2010 data, the amount of marine debris pollution from the four ASEAN countries plus China has exceeded a quarter of the total global pollution. In 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular the 14th goal regarding life under water, were implemented to address this issue in the global realm. But regionally, ASEAN as the biggest pollutant has just formed the ASEAN Framework of Action on Marine Debris in 2019. The time lag is large considering the urgency to respond has emerged since 2010. Even since 2011, ASEAN countries have started research and individual handling efforts. Therefore, knowledge about this issue has emerged since the early 2010s. However, this knowledge does not necessarily get the attention of ASEAN to deal with it collectively. We see that there is an unexplained link between the emergence of urgency and knowledge regarding marine debris pollution in the early 2010s and the formation of the regime in 2019. In this paper, we attempt to analyze how this urgency and knowledge ultimately gained the attention of ASEAN and ultimately formed the regime. The analysis will be carried out using the Weak Cognitivism approach in Knowledge-based theory, focusing on the role of the epistemic community in creating shared knowledge as the key to the formation of an international regime.
The military coup in Myanmar on February 1, 2021, carried out by the Tatmadaw against top officials from the newly elected-government–in which National League for Democracy (NLD) Party made the majority–brought strong backlashes from civil society, one of which was the Milk Tea Alliance. This paper discusses the activism of Milk Tea Alliance Indonesia in pressuring the Indonesian government and ASEAN, especially during the ASEAN Special Summit. This paper is based on qualitative method using literature review on the case study of Milk Tea Alliance activism in Indonesia. By referring to the ‘Boomerang pattern’ framework on transnational advocacy network, this paper argues that the Milk Tea Alliance represents a valuable model in South-South civil society cooperation due to the multiplicity of channels, actor form, and issues. Therefore, it plays an essential role in decolonizing the unequal North-South relations in the initial concept of Keck & Sikkink. Furthermore, this article also exposes the role of regional norms in influencing the ‘boomerang pattern,’ making it difficult for the solidarity to push ASEAN & Indonesian government as the de-facto leader of ASEAN to act stricter on Tatmadaw.
This paper discusses the factors behind China's ambiguous stance on the issue of autonomous weapons and its relationship with China's rise. In 2016 at the United Nations on Certain Conventional Weapons (UN-CCW), China was the only Permanent Five (P5) country to call for the prohibition and importance of a binding protocol on autonomous weapons. Through its position paper, China stated that the characteristics of autonomous weapons are not in accordance with the principles of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), fears of an arms race, to the threat of war. However, in 2017 China issued the New Generation of AI Development Plan (AIDP), which became the basis for China's development of autonomous weapons. This action violates their commitment at the UN-CCW because, through AIDP, China has planned the use, development, and production of autonomous weapons. Using the framework of the technologically innovative imperative and the conception of strategic ambiguity, this paper argues that China's ambiguous stance is a strategic intention resulting from a response to technological lag and systemic barriers that China is currently facing. This paper concludes that China's ambiguous stance is; (1) aimed to maintain the consistency of China's Peaceful Rise; (2) dealing with technologically innovative imperatives dynamic; (3) helping China in achieving China's Dream to achieve a Great Power status.
