Editorial: Jokowi’s Maritime Doctrine and What It Means

CGI of Indonesia’s future SIGMA Frigate (File Photo)

By Joshua Kurlantzick

Indonesia’s new president has attempted to launch a bold new foreign policy doctrine.

Despite coming into the Indonesian presidency as a man with minimal foreign policy experience, Indonesian president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has attempted to launch a bold new foreign policy doctrine. Since the end of the Suharto dictatorship, Indonesian presidents have slowly rebuilt the country’s clout in regional and international affairs, which diminished greatly in the chaotic post-Suharto era. Former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, though considered mostly a failure as a domestic reformer, did restore Indonesian leadership of ASEAN and play a significant role in helping mediate several regional conflicts.

Still, no president since Suharto proclaimed so bold a foreign policy doctrine as the former Jakarta mayor just did at the East Asia Summit. The Jokowi doctrine, focused on Indonesia’s maritime trade, infrastructure, and security, announces an intention to vastly expand Indonesia’s maritime power. Whether the country has the resources and the political will to put Jokowi’s grand vision into action remains a serious question.

The Jakarta Post has published (an) excellent overview of Jokowi’s maritime doctrine. Jokowi and his advisors developed the doctrine during his presidential campaign and the new president outlined the doctrine in his speech at the East Asia Summit in Myanmar earlier this month. The doctrine posits that Indonesia is a maritime “fulcrum” between Indian Ocean powers (namely, India) and Pacific powers like China and the United States. It also proposes that both oceans should be areas of peace and free trade, and that Indonesia will help protect the natural resources of the seas. The Jokowi doctrine also commits Indonesia to vastly expanding its naval assets, supposedly in order to secure freedom of navigation and trade on these seas. 

Read the full story at The Diplomat