Offering Support and Sharing Experiences: Indonesia’s Approach to Peacebuilding

Abstract

While the term peacebuilding receives considerably less attention than peacekeeping in the Indonesian context, in practice the country has undertaken significant activities aimed at conflict prevention and conflict management in the region. Indonesia’s experiences during its own difficult transition produced lessons that may prove valuable for others facing similar challenges. This chapter explores how peacebuilding is understood in Indonesia: its principles/philosophies, its motivating factors, and debates about it. It describes peacebuilding activities and how their results have been measured. The Indonesian approach to peacebuilding is distinct in two ways. First, it emphasizes persuasion rather than pressure to assist host countries to think of ways to create peace in their respective countries. Second, Indonesia emphasizes the concept of ‘sharing’ experiences. Indonesia tends to apply a two-way approach in which it shares its own experiences, but also learns from the host country and works to understand the local context while seeking the local ‘modalities’ to be utilized in order to start the peacebuilding process. Indonesia does not advocate a ‘one-size-fits-all’ peacebuilding policy since each country has its own unique challenges and context. Respect for these conditions is considered key to successful peacebuilding.