ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts of this book. The book tries to explain why in one international setting Indonesia's weakness can be a bargaining strength and why in another setting it is a weakness. The question is made especially interesting by the post-September 11 situation, in which Indonesian weakness is, once again, about to turn into a bargaining asset in its relations with the United States. The chapter addresses this question by examining some of the most important negotiations between the United States and Indonesia from the end of World War II to the new millennium in the light of the theory of international negotiations. A study of Indonesia's bargaining with the United States could be said to give a biased, overly optimistic picture of the ability of developing countries to avoid exploitation during a hegemonic period and a pessimistic view of their ability to avoid it in post-hegemonic bargaining.
