The growing US-China rivalry in the Pacific is becoming the defining characteristic of 21st-century international relations. Both great powers are increasingly engaging in a struggle of power projection, economic influence, and competing visions for regional order. Southeast Asia is no exception. In fact, it is one of the key regions in the world where these two global powers are increasingly competing for influence. For Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, and a significant maritime player in the Southeast Asian region, this rivalry creates both opportunities and risks. For Australia, whose strategic outlook is increasingly centred on the Pacific, an Indonesian role in maintaining regional stability is critical. Thus, this paper argues that Indonesia should enhance its regional role by embracing a more proactive, strategic and confident foreign policy in order to safeguard its strategic autonomy while at the same time working towards regional stability.

The Indo-Pacific is the region in which the rivalry between the United States and China is playing out most acutely. While the US continues to promote a rules-based global order through a structure of international relations which it has dominated for decades and which provides a degree of stability and security for middle powers such as Australia, China is rapidly expanding its strategic depth through economic statecraft as well as military modernisation.

In Southeast Asia, where there are a large number of overlapping strategic interests and a high degree of economic interdependence, the rivalry is further complicated. Indonesia, several other Southeast Asian countries and a large number of other........

© Eurasia Review