Strategic Culture and Foreign Policy: Assessing Indonesian Foreign Policy under Yudhoyono (2004-2014)

Radityo Dharmaputra, Agastya Wardhana, M. Anugrah Pratama

2018

Abstract

This article explores the discourse and practices of Indonesian foreign policy under President Yudhoyono (2004-2014) by using the lens of strategic culture. Based on Ole Waever's idea of discursive structure, the constructivist's constitutive logic between foreign policy and national identity, and by combining these with Neumann and Heikka's idea on strategic culture as interplay between discourse and practices, this article seeks to comprehend the effort to reconstruct Indonesia identity that was articulated during Yudhoyono regime. Therefore, the conduct of foreign policy during Yudhoyono, especially the doctrine of navigating turbulent ocean, was used as a tool to further examine the actual discourse and practice of Indonesian strategic culture at the time. Using the Hansenian methods of poststructuralist discourse analysis, we gathered the speeches made by Yudhoyono and his foreign minister during the timeline of the research. We then charted the emerging patterns of Yudhoyono’s policies, compared the actual policies with the discursive rhetoric and narratives from the official sources, before finally assessed the appropriateness of the discursive patterns by looking at the initial and historical ideas (and practices) of Indonesian strategic culture. Based on our findings, we argue that the initial discursive structures of Indonesian strategic culture, formulated during the history of the nation (as argued by Sulaiman in 2016), limited the choices for foreign policies during Yudhoyono’s regime. This limitation forced Yudhoyono to cling into more inward-looking foreign policy rather than his initial aim for outward-looking options.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Dharmaputra R., Wardhana A. and Pratama M. (2018). Strategic Culture and Foreign Policy: Assessing Indonesian Foreign Policy under Yudhoyono (2004-2014). In Proceedings of Airlangga Conference on International Relations - Volume 1: ACIR, ISBN 978-989-758-493-0, pages 9-20. DOI: 10.5220/0010272400002309

in Bibtex Style

@conference{acir18,
author={Radityo Dharmaputra and Agastya Wardhana and M. Anugrah Pratama},
title={Strategic Culture and Foreign Policy: Assessing Indonesian Foreign Policy under Yudhoyono (2004-2014)},
booktitle={Proceedings of Airlangga Conference on International Relations - Volume 1: ACIR,},
year={2018},
pages={9-20},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0010272400002309},
isbn={978-989-758-493-0},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of Airlangga Conference on International Relations - Volume 1: ACIR,
TI - Strategic Culture and Foreign Policy: Assessing Indonesian Foreign Policy under Yudhoyono (2004-2014)
SN - 978-989-758-493-0
AU - Dharmaputra R.
AU - Wardhana A.
AU - Pratama M.
PY - 2018
SP - 9
EP - 20
DO - 10.5220/0010272400002309