16 GLOBAL ASIA Cover Story: Economics, Security & Foreign Affairs in Southeast Asia CONFLICTING VIEWS concerning primary nation- al objectives and threats to national security led to a radical shift in Indonesian foreign policy after Suharto (1965 to 1998) supplanted Sukarno (1945 to 1965). Although Indonesia has always formally adhered to the country’s constitutionally guided “free and active” foreign policy doctrine, the two men set diametrically opposed agendas. For the revolutionary Sukarno, Indonesia’s first priority was to complete decolonization by consolidating independence in the face of ex- ternal threats and liberating West Irian (Papua) from Dutch rule. The main threats came from the presence of colonial and imperialist forces in Indonesia’s immediate neighborhood. Sukarno also had a grandiose ambition to “build the world anew” through alliances with other newly inde- pendent post-colonial states and their socialist benefactors. He saw the “New Emerging Forces” as arrayed against the “Old Established Forces” of Western colonial powers. For this reason, Indonesia made common cause with “progres- sive” states such as the Soviet Union and China. BLOODY TRANSITION Sukarno was not too interested in economic de- velopment that might dampen his revolutionary fervor. While maintaining relations with the US — partly to induce Washington to put pressure on the Dutch to relinquish West Irian — Jakarta in the late 1950s bought massive quantities of arms from the Soviet Union. The purchases raised fears in the West that Indonesia was moving too close to Moscow and helped push John F. Kennedy’s administration to facilitate a settlement between Indonesia and the Netherlands over Papua. Later, Indonesia’s confrontation with British- backed Malaysia in 1963-1965 strained the coun- try’s relations with the US and its allies almost to the breaking point. At the same time, Indonesia’s relations with China became extremely close, During the last half of the 20 th century, Indonesia lurched from the revolutionary nationalism of founding president Sukarno to the authoritarian capitalism of Suharto, which spurred economic growth but caused deep concerns over human rights issues. With Suharto’s fall in 1998, the country began a difficult transition to a stable democracy with an increasingly open and positive international image. It took the end of the Cold War and democracy for Indonesia to begin to realize more of its potential as a regional and world actor. A Journey of Change: Indonesia’s Foreign Policy By Dewi Fortuna Anwar