The Moment of a Rising Power: Indonesia’s Foreign Policy Activism, 2004-2014

During the reign of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia’s foreign policy showed a high level of global participation. It had been recognized as a pivotal state by the international community. It played an important role in many international issues ranging from international security, economy, democracy and human rights, to climate change. In addition, the robust economic growth and the defence budget policy had contributed to the road toward a rising power status. This paper is a critical review of the literatures on the moment Indonesia’s rise in international politics during the Yudhoyono presidency. The focus of this paper is to identify the driving factors behind the rise of Indonesia towards a global power. This paper concludes that ideational factors primarily the idea of the elite play a crucial role beyond the economic and military structures.

Post-Brexit Britain's Military Strategy

Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union raises questions on how UK defence policy will develop. Significant shifts inside the United Kingdom as well as its changing position in the international arena caused by Brexit require new approaches in its military strategy. National Security Strategy 2015 and UK’s International Defence Engagement Strategy 2017 do not fully reflect current geopolitical realities while new strategic documents haven’t been presented so far. UK armed forces modernization is becoming even more relevant, however there are few signs that London has capabilities to increase its defence budget. The latest statistics shows stable decline in UK military expenditure as percentage of GDP. The armed forces have been shrinking in size for several decades and some large modernization projects have come across considerable difficulties. After years of heated debates an ambitious plan to replace all four ballistic missile submarines with the new ones has been approved. However Brexit caused another wave of claims for Scottish independence raising concerns over the future of the Britain’s only Scotland-based naval facility for nuclear forces. Brexit inevitably poses a dilemma of setting UK’s foreign and defence policy priorities. Though leaving the EU doesn’t mean that Britain will fully withdraw from European defence and security initiatives, active cooperation in this sphere between London and Brussels is highly unlikely. Given that, the importance of NATO as well as other multilateral security mechanisms (especially the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force with Scandinavian and Baltic states) and bilateral defence cooperation (particularly with the US and France) is significantly increasing. Despite numerous challenges for British defence and security policy caused by Brexit these difficulties together with the UK’s traditional strong points such as the special relationship with the US and network of military facilities around the globe may give impetus to a more proactive military strategy aimed at strengthening UK’s global influence.

EVALUASI IMPLEMENTASI KEBIJAKAN MINIMUM ESSENTIAL FORCE (MEF) PADA POSTUR PEWIRA TNI Jurnal Manajemen & Bisnis Aliansi ANGKATAN UDARA

The objective of this research was to understand comprehensively of the evaluation of implementation policy ofMinimum Essential Force (MEF) in pertain of human resources focus on officers in the Indonesian Airforce, I was aqualitative recearch with an evaluative method of CIPP model, conducted in Ofiice of Ministry of Defence, IndonesianArmed forces Head quaters, and Indonesian Airforce head quaters, Jakarta.The data were collected through participant observation using interview, observation, document study, andrecording as well as focus group discussion. The data analysis and intrepretation indicates that (1) Indonesiandefence policy to build of minimum essential force by small and more effective with limited of budget; (2) ScopeDefence policy at minimum essential force: (a) Organization (b) Defence Budget (c) Human resources, Three of themare able to protect of the sourvergnity and territorial integrity in the border or in the flash point area; (3) MEF PolicyIn the Indonesian Air Force should be implemented particularly officers as backbond to catch up effectivity, efficiency,equity, and responsiveness of implementation management system in the The Indonesian Air Force organization wasfound to more effective.The findings of this evaluation by CIPP methode scored 3,24 as good result, and give some recommendation topractice continuous improvement to redesign of defence policy by involving of society and in practica to the AirForce organization to reconstruct human resources planning especially for officers.

COVID-19 will hit Australia’s defence strategy

Significance The government has incurred debt to cover its COVID-19 business and social lockdowns. The defence budget is now a likely to target for cost-saving. Impacts COVID-19 is hitting Australia’s close defence and strategic partners (United States, Japan, India) much harder than Australia. China, which has also been hard hit by COVID-19, will be Australia’s primary strategic concern. Interest rates and the Australian dollar’s strength will affect COVID-19’s effect on defence spending. Rising unemployment may help the ADF address its long-standing recruitment problems. Constrained Australian defence outlays will make Canberra a weaker ally during that time.

London will diverge from the EU on foreign policy

Subject UK foreign policy. Significance Last week the EU and United Kingdom published their negotiating objectives for the future relationship. The European Commission’s negotiating mandate largely reflects the Political Declaration, including a desire for close formal cooperation in defence, security and foreign policy. The United Kingdom’s objectives indicate that it wants less formal cooperation as it seeks to de-institutionalise its relationship with the bloc. Impacts The economic impact of Brexit could cut the size of the UK defence budget, which has already fallen more than 10% in real terms since 2010. The absence of formal channels of EU-UK cooperation and coordination could result in a weakening of the EU’s sanctions regime on Russia. The re-election of US President Donald Trump would herald a further four years of transatlantic tensions.

European Defence: a puzzle with many unknowns

Under the pressure of the growing turbulence of EuroAtlantic space due to the increasing isolationism of the United States and the fact that Global security is now determined by the confrontation between the two centers of power – the United States and China, as well as the shift of strategic decision-making into the USA-Russia-China triangle, Europe is forced to admit that the period of solidarity of the collective West is over. If earlier differences between the allies were exclusively tactical, now they affect already fundamental foundations. In the current situation, Europe will try to intensify the development of the European defence component and strengthen integration in the field of security policy in order to achieve full strategic sovereignty. This process is complicated by the low level of European defence capacity, the shortage of funds of the European defence budget, weak strategic planning, and the unresolved issue of limits of supranational competences of the command of the European Armed Forces. With the use of comparative, event and content analysis, it is concluded that the key problem is that EU member states have a different scale of assessment of risks and security threats, they find it difficult to reach a common understanding, without which the development of a strategic concept of European defence will be largely decorative. The author cosiders that it is first and foremost necessary to establish a Pan-European consensus on basic points, including a set of definitions. A serious challenge for the European defence project was coronavirus COVID-19. The pandemic revealed a global crisis of leadership, a lack of solidarity, and the world's lack of preparedness for a large-scale biological threat. In the near future, states will consider biological attacks among the priority security threats, and this seems to the author to be a promising field for cooperation within the framework of European defence. It is about the development of a Pan-European system of recognition, warning and opposition to the bacteriological threat using developments in the field of artificial intelligence.

Are We Really Lacking the Effectiveness of Financial Resource Management in the Defence Sector?

Recently, the increase of spending in the sector of defence has opened up larger and larger spaces for the development / modernisation potential of individual countries. However, in this “resource overflow”, the effectiveness of the use of financial resources for defence is undermined. This study takes a look at the dangers of the ever-decreasing defence budget share (dangers well known in economics and well known in the field of defence sphere in the recent past) and the “free-rider effect” observed in different members states of the NATO (related to e.g. NATO Article 5) and reviews the effectiveness of financial resource management.