ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the domestic sources of Indonesia's varying participation in maritime security cooperation. Some scholarly works have used bureaucratic politics to understand Indonesia's foreign policy making. It examines Indonesia's domestic political dynamics, from the country's independence through to the present Joko Widodo administration. The chapter highlights which political practices have changed and which remain the same in post-authoritarian Indonesia. It shows the limitations of a bureaucratic politics approach to understanding Indonesia's participation and non-participation in maritime security arrangements. Allison's bureaucratic politics focuses on the process of formulation and reformulation of policy decisions through the interaction of various actors' competing preferences. The chapter demonstrates that Indonesia has a distinct bureaucratic politics, different from Allison's focus on competing preferences of various government institutions involved in the policy process. The MFA plays a central role in negotiating cooperation arrangements at international level.
