Strangers Next Door?

Abstract

Australia and Indonesia’s immediate neighbourhood is changing fundamentally and both countries know it. Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) came to office in 2014 imploring his fellow citizens to ‘work, work, and work’ to seize an historic opportunity for Indonesia to become a major nation on the world stage. Australia also understands that it will need to transform itself to face the Asian century. That much is clear from the cluster of strategic plans Australia has produced over the past decade: three defence white papers since 2009; the Asian Century white paper in 2013; and, most recently, a foreign policy white paper and a thorough-going intelligence review in 2017. That Australia..