Japan’s Balanced Strategy to Face China’s Threat in South China Sea Dispute

This paper aims to analyze Japan’s foreign policy related to the dispute in the South China Sea (SCS). Even though Japan has no sovereignty claims, it has considerable interests in the SCS region. Japan, which is poor in natural resources, depends on energy imports, most of which are shipped through SCS. As an advanced industrial state, Japan must continue to meet domestic energy demand. However, the SCS area has a potential conflict due to Chinese assertive behavior as the main factor that could threaten Japanese interests. The author use qualitative method with relevant literature studies and official government documentation to conduct a descriptive analysis of the research findings. The results of the study indicate that Japan is implementing a balanced strategy to deal with the potential threat of China. Balancing against threats is conducted in internal ways, e.g. internal reinforcement, and external ways, e.g. forming and strengthening cooperation with other countries outside the United States (US). Since Japan's limitations in military aspect hindered their internal reinforcement, this study emphasizes Japan's external balance strategy. The increasingly dubious US commitment in the Asia Pacific has made Japan strengthen defense cooperation with Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. The three countries have interest in SCS and provide access that conforms to Japanese interests.

Village Community Readiness In Estabilishing A Global Village

Global village is a phenomenon that occurs due to advances in information technology where there are no physical boundaries between individuals, communities, and countries. The world is connected through information technology and shares a variety of things. Apart from being a potential threat, the global village phenomenon also provides opportunities for introducing the Indonesian tourism sector to the global community. One of the villages that have the potential to exploit the global village phenomenon, especially in the tourism sector, is Ngargogondo Village, Borobudur Subdistrict, Magelang Regency, Central Java because it has the potential as a language tourism village. This study aims to measure community readiness in realizing a global village in the tourism sector with an analysis of community readiness dimensions in tourism and the global village aspect. This study used a survey approach with 157 respondents who were obtained using cluster random sampling technique. Meanwhile, the indicators used are adopted from the Tri-Ethnic for Prevention Research, with 19 indicators as research instruments. The results showed that the Ngargogondo Village community’s readiness was at the preparation stage (tourism aspect) and pre-planning (global village aspect). This study suggests that to increase community readiness in realizing the global village tourism sector, the Ngargogondo Village government must increase the availability of resources, especially in the tourism aspect, and create a positive climate in the community in response to the development of information technology in Ngargogondo Village.

Celebrities in the Recruitment of Candidates for Legislative Members of the Indonesian Parliament in the Legislative Elections

The 2019 Legislative Election featured many celebrities involved in the contestation, where a total of 11 of the 16 political parties had legislative candidates from the celebrity circles. Democratic National Party (NasDem) became the party that nominated most celebrities as legislative candidates. Armed with the popularity that has made celebrities attract political parties to nominate them to increase the vote acquisition and even the number of seats. The process of recruiting legislative candidates from celebrities by the NasDem Party is the focus of this research on how the approach and process are carried out. The study uses qualitative analysis with a descriptive approach to describe the process that occurs through interviews and review of documents and news as a source of data. The results obtained indicate that the NasDem Party’s legislative candidate was recruited using an approach that involved the NasDem Party elite and fellow celebrities as intermediaries. Factors driving celebrities to become the NasDem Party’s legislative candidates are moral support (debriefing, fostering, and active interaction with party elites) and material (Campaign Props, campaign costs, financial reimbursement), Indonesian Restoration slogans, and anti-dowry politics, as well as egalitarian politics attitudes. Celebrity-related research in politics has focused a lot on the role of transformation from entertainment to politics. In contrast, this research has focused on recruiting celebrities as legislative candidates by the NasDem Party.

Democracy In Slovenia: Slovenia’s Entry Into The European Union After The Disintegration Of Yugoslavia

After the disintegration of Yugoslavia, Slovenia made changes in its ideology and political system to become part of the European Union. However, as a newly independent country, Slovenia faces an unfinished successional political transition. Undertaking a democratic system shift will cause Slovenia to face several challenges: accepting and implementing new democratic laws, introducing a liberal economy with free initiative, and achieving national sovereignty as an independent country. Apart from being a newly independent country, Slovenia also has a history of war with Italy when it was under Yugoslavia during the Second World War. These conditions make Slovenia’s entry into the European Union problematic. This article aims to understand Slovenia’s policy transition process after the disintegration of Yugoslavia and its consideration to join the European Union. This article uses qualitative methods with data and literatures collection from various official documents, books, journals, and online news which discuss integration process and democracy implementation in Slovenia related to its integration to European Union. This article concludes that Slovenia’s decision to join the European Union - despite its position as a newly independent country and the history of war with Italy - was due to the belief that a common liberal democratic system could help open relations with fellow democracies. The similarity of this system can be seen from the application of the three pillars of liberal democracy in democratic peace theory. The theory postulates that when the three pillars are applied, liberal countries will not go to war with each other

The Digital Turn in Geopolitics: Gojek’s Strategy of Digital Space and Its Geopolitical Implications

Digital transformation has revolutionized all aspects of life due to its connectivity cap bility. However, the discipline of contemporary Geopolitics has not discussed it in-depth, and is still pinned towards the modern geopolitics discourse focusing merely on regional geopolitical contestations. This article aims to enrich the intellectual discourse on postmodern geopolitics embracing the digital turn in geopolitics. Focusing on non-state actors, this study scrutinizes Gojek, an Indonesian decacorn startup company, by asking how Gojek’s strategization of their digital spaces results in geopolitical implications. Epistemologically, this article utilizes Foucaultian governmentality and the concept of power-knowledge to understand geopolitical power of Gojek and explain how they construct their information power. This study finds that Gojek constructs their power through building digital spaces which connects the customers with Gojek’s partners. The empire of connectivity which Gojek has established does not merely give them power in the digital realm but also in real politics. There exist some geopolitical implications because of Gojek’s strategizing of digital space such as (i) the emergent information power of digital connectivity; (ii) the use of information-based startup as means of Indonesia’s diplomacy; (iii) the emergent power of the person who designs and leads the construction of digital spaces. Further research with a different sample is required to enrich the discourse on digital turn in geopolitics since this research only scrutinizes a case in one of the developing countries.

Energy Diplomacy: Proposed Strategic Roles For State-Owned Enterprises

Natural resources endowment has always been a critical factor in supporting a country‟s development, particularly in the early stage, where firm productivity in industry and service sectors are still low. Such is the case with Indonesia, one of the largest oil-producing countries in the East Asia region, where the oil boom period in the 1970s has been able to fund many development projects. Although oil resource is waning over the last decade, the country is still among the largest producer in the Southeast Asian region, with an also growing demand for the burgeoning industry. This unique role should be able to strengthen Indonesia‟s position at the international level. That is why through this article, we try to propose a better picture of what could be done by scholars to help in formulating Indonesia‟s energy diplomacy. The purpose of this article is to have a look the role of Pertamina, a State-Owned Enterprise, in supporting international diplomacy while also executing their role in strengthening national energy security. Taking examples from other influential oil-seeking countries such as Japan and China and also from oil-producing „petrodollar‟ country such as Saudi Arabia, then Pertamina should actively engage in promoting development in targetted countries and maintaining bilateral ties. The conclusion of this research article is strong correlations between energy, diplomacy, and development assistance among those countries. Those nexuses will help Indonesia in exercising its “free and active” diplomatic stance in resolving various international issues such as the Freedom of Palestine and The Rohingya issue in Myanmar.

Youthizen Political Literacy: Educating The Generation Z

This study aims to investigate the differences in attitudes of young generation in showing their political expression on social media before and after the socialization in community service. The issue is related to the attitude of young generation in using social media as a means of expres-sion. Meanwhile, we realize that the internet can often be misleading with the abundance of in-formation and hoaxes. It requires the user’s ability to choose and filter the correct and useful information. As the generation that dominates social media and the internet, Generation Z is al-so a target of politicians and political issues on the internet. Therefore, political literacy for young generation in the internet is crucial. The data in this research were collected by quantita-tive descriptive methods through surveys before and after the socialization of social media and politics. The survey was conducted on 100 high school students in Semarang City. The results showed that the program for political literacy socialization increased the political literacy of the high school students by providing a positive knowledge regarding politics. The results showed that the program increased the high school students’ political literacy and attitude towards the use of social media for political expression.

Human Right Impact Assessment (HRIA): The Importance Of Community Involvement In International Agreement

In the growing international agreements as a consequence of Indonesia’s wider participation in the global community, the existence of free market harms the domestic industrial sector, especially to the community. The number of treaties which have been ratified by the government considered as incomparable to the losses incurred, particularly to the possibility of human rights violations of information dysfunction, and the lack of public participation as well as evaluation functions. This study uses a descriptive qualitative approach where data is obtained from primary and secondary data. The purpose of this study is to find out the conceptual and practical considerations faced in the possibility of violations of human rights. Moreover, the article also addresses the form of diplomacy carried out by the public regarding several government policies in the Free Trade Agreement and its relations to human rights. The study suggests that the government must guarantee human rights by involving affected communities as a form of collective understanding. Furthermore, the government must also monitor, evaluate, assess, as well as strengthen the communication from various stakeholders to eliminate the hidden costs that can harm the community.

Collaborative Governance In Public Service In Indonesia: A Systematic Mapping Study

This research raises a problem in Indonesia’s public services, with its relation to the scope of Public Administration Science. The study aims to analyze research articles in international journals with a time span from 2015 to 2019. The databases that the researchers used in the preparation of these scientific articles are Scopus and Taylor and Francis Group, which already have recognition from academics internationally. This study uses a qualitative research method with a literature review approach model in the form of a systematic mapping study. The research concludes that collaborative governance is most widely applied in public services, especially in the health sector. In addition, the method most commonly used is qualitative research methods with a case study approach

Green Brand Products in Small and Medium Batik Industries with Pls-Sem Approach

This study examines Regiocentric Image Capabilities and Market Penetration on Green Products and the effect of Green Products on Marketing Performance. The sample in this study were 58 entrepreneurs of Small and Medium Batik Industries, who used natural colouring. The sampling technique used was purposive sampling, and the analysis technique used was PLS-SEM. The study found that Regiocentric Image Capabilities and Market Penetration significantly influence the Green Products, and it has a significant effect on Marketing Performance. Moreover, Green Brand Image does not influence a significant increase in Marketing Performance. These results indicated that Regiocentric Image Capabilities can enhance the capability of green product innovation with environmentally friendly natural colouring. The product is also supported by a broad market penetration capability. Furthermore, Green Brand Image on batik colouring products has no significant effect on marketing performance. The focus on green products appears so that the SMIs can increase marketing of environmentally friendly batik products.