The state's geopolitics versus the local's concern, a case study on the land border between Indonesia and Timor-Leste in West Sector

Abstract

One of geopolitics realizations is the establishment of international borders between countries. Indonesia has international land borders with 3 countries, including the land border with Timor-Leste. Establishment of the international border between Indonesia and Timor-Leste was a joint mandate of the two Governments, these are the Republic of Indonesia (RI) and the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (RDTL) based on the Treaty 1904 and the Arbitrary Awards 1914. Joint border surveys have been in progress achieving 96% of the total length of the border lines. During the surveys there were problematic situations occurred. A government's geopolitics is not always fortunate to immediately match with the local's concern on the land border line establishment. This is particularly happening at a certain land border line segment between Indonesia and Timor-Leste in West Sector. This paper does not describe which side is right or wrong, instead, a soft approach of solution is underlined. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.