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What Threat? Leadership, Strategic Culture, and Indonesian Foreign Policy in the South China Sea
Author(s) -
Sulaiman Yohanes
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
asian politics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.193
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1943-0787
pISSN - 1943-0779
DOI - 10.1111/aspp.12496
Subject(s) - china , government (linguistics) , indonesian government , foreign policy , political science , politics , friendship , indonesian , development economics , state (computer science) , global leadership , international relations , political economy , economic growth , economics , public relations , sociology , law , philosophy , linguistics , computer science , social science , algorithm
Why is there no balancing behavior in Southeast Asia vis‐à‐vis what many observers see as a “Chinese threat,” especially in the case of Indonesia? Despite all the concerns regarding the stability of the region, Indonesia is neither strengthening its power projection capability nor building a coalition to address China's growing power in the South China Sea. Indonesia's underbalancing behavior is the result of a strategic culture that influences its military and foreign policy thinking on threat perceptions and economic considerations, limiting the options that Indonesia can take vis‐à‐vis China. As a result, China as a state is not seen as a major, direct, and immediate threat that would warrant immediate action that may in turn jeopardize Indonesia's larger interest. Instead, domestic politics and security—especially public perceptions of how the government's friendship with China may benefit or hurt the government—remains the focus and the priority of the government.