Indonesia hopes to hold greater sway over its strategic environment, but it lacks a strategy for leveraging soft power, say policy researchers.
. No wonder the Lowy Institute’s 2023 Asia Power Index, officially used in the long-term development plan as a performance indicator, ranks Indonesia ninth among 28 Asian countries in terms of influence, sandwiched just between Singapore and Thailand.
Coined by Joseph Nye, soft power refers to the capacity to shape the preferences of others without resorting to coercion or hard power. It stems from a country’s cultural attractiveness, the universality of its political values and the moral legitimacy of its foreign policies.Japan, South Korea, Singapore, even Thailand have fared much better than Indonesia in this respect. In the Global Soft Power Index 2023, they all sit above Indonesia, which sits in 45th place.
Mainstreaming soft power as a policy paradigm requires Indonesian policymakers to start seeing its pristine nature, biodiversity, culture and human talent as the primary capital of geostrategic influence. In addition, learning from India’s success in tapping into its global diaspora as a source of soft power, Indonesia needs to conceive its human capital development strategy within the context of an inter-connected world.
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