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Decolonization created new opportunities for international scientific research collaboration. In Indonesia this began in the late 1940s, as Indonesian scientists and officials sought to remake the formerly colonial botanical gardens in the city of Bogor into an international research center. Indonesia sponsored the Flora Malesiana project, a flora of all of island Southeast Asia. This project was formally centered in Bogor, Indonesia, with participation from tropical botanists from around the world. The international orientation of Indonesian science led to the establishment of one of UNESCO's Field Science Co-operation Offices in Jakarta, and to a period of close collaboration between Indonesian botanists and UNESCO. This paper examines the importance of UNESCO's Humid Tropics research program, which initially provided further opportunities for Indonesian botanists to participate in international scientific networks. The paper concludes by showing that the Humid Tropics program led to the slow erosion of Indonesian agency and authority over tropical botany, and the assertion of Western control and management over tropical botany research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews historical legislation relating to the management of shipwrecks in Indonesia, examining issues relating to terminology, division of authority, and implementation. It focuses on the evolution of Indonesia's commercial salvage legislation, from its introduction in 1989 to its abrupt cessation in 2010, when a moratorium was introduced. While the moratorium was interpreted as a sign that Indonesia was moving closer to internationally accepted principles regarding the management of underwater cultural heritage, the introduction of a new law unrelated to maritime heritage has instead disturbed this anticipated trajectory. Designed to stimulate job opportunities, Law No. 11/2020 on Job Creation has, perversely, raised the prospect that the moratorium will be repealed. As this article demonstrates, the changing conceptualization of the value of shipwrecks and their cargoes remains a live issue in Indonesia, reflecting unresolved tensions about its identity as a maritime nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid-1950s, communist Czechoslovakia established diplomatic relations with several of the newly emerging states in the decolonising world and with states that were leaning towards socialism themselves. In building bilateral relations, Czechoslovak diplomacy often benefited from earlier, interwar cooperation and from traditional interests in the local knowledge of these “exotic” regions acquired during previous trade relations. Whilst the region of Southeast Asia lay largely on the periphery of these interests, the situation radically changed from the middle of the twentieth century. The ideology of “proletarian internationalism” played a key role here, and after 1956 it gave a new impetus to engagement with developing countries, signalling a shift in Soviet (and thus Czechoslovak) foreign policy. Although the Vietnamese are one of the largest national minorities in the Czech Republic today, in the late 1950s high expectations were placed on another state in the region: Indonesia. This study provides a brief reconstruction of the mutual relations between the two countries and the student communities that were formed in Czechoslovakia within this foreign policy context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) allows a country to enhance their bargaining position. This approach is coercive rather than peaceful. The idealistic approach using “peaceful” methods to deter the national security threats remains valuable, however, especially for Indonesia as a maritime nation. Indonesia has three factors which obstruct its development as a maritime power. First, there are limited regulations regarding the condition of “secure” regional security in ASEAN. Second, there are limited military funds. Finally, the sea level conditions in the Indonesia waters (known as brown and green sea) are not conducive to naval development. One solution is to leverage the Indonesia Military’s international relations to enhance national maritime power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Indonesian decentralisation policies have generated strong localisation movements which recall regional history. During the Soeharto years history was invoked as part of an homogenising nationalism. With recent changes in the city of Makassar that process is being reversed to strengthen local participation in redefined national structures.