ABSTRACT
The ambiguous foreign policy traits make Indonesia what Randall Schweller calls a ‘conflicted power’. He identifies three roles for emerging powers – status quo powers or supporters of the global order, spoilers or dissatisfied powers of the global order, and shirkers or states unwilling to contribute to the global order. Emerging Indonesia, taken together, has shown traits of both an inward-looking and outward-oriented, ambitious and reluctant, status quo and revisionist, global and regional, normative and pragmatic, institutionalist and realist, multilateral and bilateral, and middle power, as well as an aspiring great power. The ambiguity in Indonesian foreign policy has come from continuing dominance of the personalized nature of foreign policy making process. It has amplified the influence of the offices of President and Foreign Minister in the agenda and style of foreign policy making. The Foreign Ministry has seen increasing pressure coming from other ministries and their growing interference in foreign policy making.
