ABSTRACT
From the structural point of view US-Indonesian bargaining seems to have only one obvious characteristic affecting the relative bargaining powers. This is naturally the structural bargaining advantage of Indonesia vis-a-vis the United States offered by the fact that Indonesia has a cooperative access to both the hegemon and the challenger who again are enemies. In a perverse way the power of the hegemon was one of the most important factors explaining Indonesia's bargaining leverage. First of all the US power in aid negotiations tended to based on economic resources: the ability to compensate for Indonesia's compliance. The logic of the availability heuristics in Indonesia during the post-colonial phase, structured the 'aid for power'-bargaining game so that the Indonesian evaluation of the concessions they were expected by the United States bolstered the Indonesian bargaining stand: every Indonesian concession was very expensive.
