Strengthening Indonesia-Russia trade economy relations: Indonesia’s effort to access Eurasia market

The article discusses economic cooperation between Indonesia and Russia, as well as the possibility of Indonesia entering the Eurasian market. Indonesia is recognized as the largest economy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the leader of Southeast Asian countries with high rates of economic growth. The growth of the regional economy is expected to support global economic stability. Russia is an unconventional market for Indonesia's main goods in the Eurasian region, so Indonesian goods can be found quite rarely on Russian markets and in supermarkets. In this regard, it is important to understand which Indonesian export goods are of interest to Russians and how these goods can fall into Russia. To do this, it is necessary to study the business potential of partners with whom you can start working together. Since 2016, Indonesia has been emphasizing the importance of cooperation and trade and economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, Eurasia and Southeast Asia. In the midst of a global pandemic, it is necessary to develop diplomacy and economic cooperation between Indonesia and Russia in order to prevent potential conflicts in the South China Sea involving the United States and China. At the same time, Indonesia should develop its economy and trade through bilateral and multilateral cooperation in international organizations. The study showed that economic cooperation between the two countries should contribute to strengthening trade relations, increasing investment and increasing the competitiveness of Indonesia's export products.

RUSSIAN AND NORTHERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES COOPERATION IN DEVELOPING ARCTIC TOURISM

The Arctic as a territory of strategic presence is in the field of close attention of many players in the geopolitical and international economic arena. The Arctic tourism development over the past 15 years is due not only to the influence of business, social and cultural factors, as well as the growing interest of consumers to get a unique experience of travel to northern tourism destinations but is also associated with the development of global economic processes and diplomatic relations, which determine successful bilateral cooperation in interdepartmental and intergovernmental level. Multilateral cooperation and the implementation of jointly adopted tourism development programs within the framework of the activities of international organizations are also of great importance. With the restrictions on international and domestic travel in two recent years, the global tourism market entered a crisis state, which affected the dynamics of tourist arrivals in the Arctic and slowed down this development. The author, drawing attention to the current bilateral and intergovernmental agreements on cooperation in tourism between Russia and the Nordic countries and the Plan of significant events in connection with Russia's chairmanship in the Arctic Council in 2021–2023 proposes to support a peaceful and friendly policy of good-neighbourliness and cooperation in matters of sustainable tourism development in the Arctic, despite the claims of the European Union for interference in Arctic affairs, which were reflected in the European Commission's Joint Communication dated October 13, 2021.

Adrian Robert Bazbauers and Susan Engel: The Global Architecture of Multilateral Development Banks: A System of Debt or Development?

This book explores the evolution of the 30 functioning multilateral development banks (MDBs). MDBs have their roots in the growing system of international finance and multilateral cooperation, with the first recognisable MDB being proposed by Latin America in financial cooperation with the US in the late 1930s. That Inter-American Bank did not eventuate but was a precursor to the World Bank being negotiated at Bretton Woods in 1944. Since then, a complex network of regional, sub-regional, and specialised development banks has progressively emerged across the globe, including two significant recent entrants established by China and the BRICS. MDBs arrange loans, credits, and guarantees for investment in member states, generally with the stated aim of fostering economic growth. They operate in both the Global North and South, though there are more MDBs focusing on emerging and developing states. While the World Bank and some of the larger regional banks have been scrutinised, little attention has been paid to the smaller banks or the overall system. This book provides the first study of all 30 MDBs and it evaluates their interrelationships. It analyses the emergence of the MDBs in relation to geopolitics, development paradigms and debt. It includes sections on each of the banks as well as on how MDBs have approached the key sectors of infrastructure, human development, and climate. This book will be of particular interest to researchers of development finance, global governance, and international political economy.

Middle Power Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific: India and Australia at the Forefront

Indo-Pacific has emerged as a region of great movement, conflict and cooperation, contestations and coalition-building. The emergence of minilateral and multilateral cooperation by the middle powers is increasing in the region, with the regional countries enthusiastically mapping the region focussing on their centrality. History proves that the role of middle-power countries became more prominent during the moments of international transition. The two contrasting powers like India and Australia; one with a post-colonial identity in foreign policy-making, subtle emphasis on non-aligned movement (NAM) and emerging as an influential power, and, on the other, a traditional middle power with an alliance structure and regionalism akin to the Western model, have equal stakes in the region and it is inevitable for them to take a leadership position in building what is called a middle power communion in the Indo-Pacific. This article will explore the understanding of middle powers and how India and Australia, as middle powers; are strategically placed and, being great powers within their respective regions; take the responsibility of region-building and maintaining peace with great powers, and how the Indo-Pacific and Quad are emerging as discourses within their foreign policy-making.

LEGAL REGULATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL BILATERAL AND MULTILATERAL SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL COOPERATION OF RUSSIA AND KAZAKHSTAN

The article deals with the development of international scientific and technical cooperation betweenRussia and Kazakhstan and its main actors. International scientific and technical relations are describedthrough the prism of bilateral and multilateral cooperation between the two states through regionalinterstate associations, in particular the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The author pays specialattention to the issue of legal regulation of international scientific and technical regulation, the mainmechanism of which is bilateral and multilateral treaties and agreements. At the same time, one of the important forms of cooperation is the development of coordinated measures to harmonize the regulatoryframework of Russia and Kazakhstan in the field of science and technology.

Deteminant factors to improve Indonesian cocoa performance

Encouraging the growth of Indonesia’s agricultural sector is important for improving the export performance of Indonesia’s leading commodities. The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of the IDR exchange rate and the shock of the determinants of cocoa exports on the growth of Indonesian cocoa exports. The research was conducted using time series data from 1969-2017. This study uses the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The analysis showed that the data is stationary at the first difference. The causality test shows that cocoa production, IDR exchange rate, GDP affect the growth of Indonesian cocoa exports, but world cocoa prices have no effect on cocoa exports. The results of the impulse response factor (IRF) analysis show that the response of cocoa exports to changes in the exchange rate is more volatile when compared to the response of production, GDP, and world cocoa prices to Indonesian cocoa exports. Analysis of variance decomposition shows that the contribution of the IDR exchange rate to export growth is greater than the contribution of world cocoa prices, GDP, and production at the beginning of exports, however over time the influence of the IDR exchange rate will decrease and it is the number of production factors that will affect Indonesia’s cocoa exports. Indonesia needs to increase production by maintaining the quality of cocoa according to export needs considering the demand for cocoa that will continue to increase. Bilateral or multilateral cooperation is needed to strengthen cocoa export cooperation with major importing.

International organizations' responses to member state contestation: from inertia to resilience

International organizations (IOs) play a key role in promoting multilateral cooperation on critical transnational issues. Yet, their authority has increasingly been contested by member states that cut financial contributions or even withdraw their membership. How do IOs respond to such contestation? While the existing literature has mostly focused on reactions by other member states, I argue in this article that our understanding of IOs' responses to contestation remains incomplete without an analysis of IO bureaucracies. I propose a conceptual framework to analyse three types of bureaucratic responses: inertia, i.e. no immediate response; adaptation, i.e. institutional changes to maintain the support of the challenging member state(s); and resilience-building, i.e. developing organizational capacities to limit contestation. I argue that each of these responses is shaped by specific bureaucratic mechanisms, namely hunkering, negotiation, framing, coalition-building, shaming and professionalization. Based on a comparative within-case study analysing the reactions of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to budget cuts by the Reagan, Bush and Trump administrations, I further theorize that the organization's threat perception, the position of other member states and bureaucratic leadership are relevant factors that need to be considered to explain the variation in IO responses to contestation.

Becoming a normative power? China's Mekong agenda in the era of Xi Jinping

Maintaining robust diplomatic relationships with neighbouring countries in the Mekong region has become strategically critical to China. Since President Xi Jinping took office, China has been renovating normative power in the Mekong region, endeavouring to socialize the Mekong countries into accepting normative Chinese concepts, such as ‘community of shared destiny’, by mobilizing and reconfiguring their material and normative recourses. This article argues that China's normative power stems from two primary mechanisms: 1) an organized, top-down diffusion driven by political elites, involving inter-governmental dialogues, socialization via bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms, and negotiations with countries co-opted into China-led connectivity and infrastructure initiatives; 2) a bottom-up diffusion of ideas from practices (i.e. exchange of goods, trade, aid) and the physical presence of China in the Mekong region, exemplified by the massive scale of infrastructurewidely constructed in the region. Taken together, China's expanded normative engagement in the Mekong subregion is comprised of multiple, oscillating modes of normative production that have been ‘synchronized’ across riparian countries with varied geoeconomic and geopolitical circumstances. Our findings suggest that while normative Chinese discourses have been accepted by the ruling classes of certain Mekong countries, China's attempts to build normative power have been largely shunned by the civil societies in the region.

China’s Energy Financing in Southeast Asia: Examining Its Public Goods Approach

This article aims to assess the motivations, modifications and impacts of China’s public goods approach by studying its energy financing in Southeast Asia. It argues that China’s public goods approach of energy financing will help improve financing performance through sustainable development and multilateral cooperation. However, the approach is constrained by the lack of trust from the region, incompatible standards between China and other Western practices, and growing securitisation by the United States on Chinese economic activities.