The Politics of Indonesia’s Development Cooperation: Between Ideas, Institutions, and Structures

Abstract

Indonesia’s international development evolved from the conjunction of political, economic, and socio-cultural cooperation of its South–South Cooperation and North–South Cooperation. These cooperations have generated specific structures and shaped the ideas, motivations, identity, norms, and mechanisms of Indonesia in international development. However, domestic political conditions also affirm the trajectory of Indonesia’s international development policy. This raises the question of how the Indonesian Government and its leaders have constructed and materialised its international development policies within global development cooperation. This chapter intends to examine the roles of Indonesia in international development cooperation. First, it explores the history, and how development cooperation experiences began in the aftermath of the 1945 independence from the Dutch and the Bandung Conference in 1955. Despite the peculiarity of its principles including mutual benefit and solidarity in Indonesia’s South–South Cooperation, the normative narrative extends to knowledge sharing in development cooperation. Second, it critically reviews current conditions as a rising power country and the changes occurring as to how Indonesia institutionalised its development cooperation within their national system. It also examines Indonesia’s implementation, modalities, and specific contents of cooperation in international development, including exposing development success stories in its international development programme. This chapter concludes with implications of Indonesia’s development cooperation structures of narratives and implementations that stimulate critical debates on its position in international development.