The Arab revolutions are beginning to destroy the cliché of an Arab world incapable of democratic transformation. But another caricature is replacing it: according to the new narrative, the crowds in Cairo, Benghazi or Damascus, mobilized by Facebook and Twitter, are the latest illustration of the spread of Western democratic ideals; and while the “rise of the rest” may challenge the economic dominance of Western nations, the West will continue to define the political agenda of the world. Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for the ‘Regional Politics’ Category
6 April 2011
ASEAN and the Thai Cambodia border tensions
A landmark agreement among ASEAN Foreign Ministers in February effectively defused a dangerous stand-off between Thai and Cambodian forces along their common border by agreeing on the deployment of Indonesian monitors on either side of the border and also the convening of bilateral talks between the two sides in Indonesia. Read the rest of this entry »
4 March 2010
Indonesia and the West
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will engage with two of his administration’s closest allies in March. In mid-March he will make a long delayed visit to the country’s Southerly neighbour, Australia; later in the month US President Barack Obama will make his long delayed formal visit to Indonesia, a return to the country of his boyhood he had promised to make in the first months of his administration.
These visits will be opportunities to define Indonesia’s relations with two of the Asia-Pacific’s important “Western” components.
In doing so, Yudhoyono will find himself having to walk a fine line between a full embrace of western values and strategic goals, and the emerging sense of identity and purpose Indonesia wants to articulate as an emerging medium-sized Asian power.
Recent Comments- G is for Gendered: taking the mystery out of gendering peace agreements « PeaceTalks on Aceh: The maintenance and dividends of peace
- Nazir Ahmad Nazary on Women and peacemaking in Afghanistan: Room for optimism?
- Tim Symonds on Women in Nepal
- Uday Bhanu Sen on Aceh: The maintenance and dividends of peace
- samuel Orovwuje on Mediation ten years on