Greta Nabbs-Keller

Natuna Islands in the South China Sea has flared again, with Jakarta giving every indication it’s not for backing down.

The terrorism threat in Southeast Asia fundamentally changed over 15 years, but Indonesian laws struggled to adapt.

As the election race heats up, the economy is Jokowi’s likely vulnerability; meanwhile Prabowo boosts campaign coffers.

The idea that Canberra's volatile political relationship with Jakarta could be remediated by greater ‘ballast’ has been an article of faith in Australian foreign policy circles since former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans employed the metaphor in a 1988 speech to a bilateral business forum. Evan's logic was that greater substance in the form of increased mutual interests would provide greater equilibrium to what he described as an 'overly intense political relationship'.