Event: The Indonesian Election - Prospects for Australia-Indonesia Relations
In the lead up to the Indonesian presidential election on 9 July 2014, the Lowy Institute held a panel discussion on the outlook for Indonesian politics and foreign policy under the next president. The panel featured Agus Widjojo, Gregory Fealy, Greta Nabs-Keller, and was moderated by Aaron L. Connelly.
LTG (Ret.) Agus Widjojo is one of Indonesia’s leading foreign policy intellectuals, having played a key role in its foreign policy both from the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) and in retirement as an envoy of the current administration. In these roles, he has been closely involved in Indonesia diplomacy with Australia and the countries of Southeast Asia, and in the Bali Democracy Forum. In the military, he served as the last leader of the military group in the Indonesian legislature during constitutional debates which led to the military’s departure from politics. Prior to that role, he served as the dean of the TNI Command and Staff College, and served abroad with Indonesian forces in Vietnam and the Sinai.
Pak Agus currently serves a vice chairperson of the Executive Board of The Partnership for Governance Reform, a Senior Fellow at CSIS Jakarta, a member of the advisory Board of the Institute of Peace and Democracy, Udayana University, and was deputy of the Presidential Policy implementation Unit and the Indonesian representative on the Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship.
Dr Gregory Fealy is Associate Professor and Senior Fellow, Indonesian Politics Joint Appointment: School of Culture, History & Language, School of International, Political & Strategic Studies, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.
Prior to his current position, Greg was Visiting Professor in Indonesian Politics at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Washington DC; Lecturer in Southeast Asian History, Monash University; Indonesia analyst with the Australian Government; and a consultant on Indonesian civil society, election and Islamic education programs.
Greg’s interest in Indonesian politics and Islam was awakened as an undergraduate at Monash University and they have remained the focus of his academic and professional activity since then. His PhD thesis was a study of the traditionalist Muslim party, Nahdlatul Ulama. More recently, Greg has examined terrorism, transnational Islamist movements and religious commodification in Indonesia, as well as broader trends in contemporary Islamic politics in Southeast Asia.
Dr Greta Nabbs-Keller is the Director of Dragonminster Consulting, a Brisbane-based company providing expertise on Indonesia's defence and foreign policy sectors for government, academic and private sector clients. Greta's broader research interests include Indonesian civil-military relations, Indonesia-China relations, politico-security developments in Southeast Asia and Australia's regional foreign policy. In March 2014, Greta was awarded a PhD by Griffith University for her doctoral thesis examining 'the impact of democratisation on Indonesia's foreign policy'.
Greta has worked in various intelligence, analytical and policy roles for the Department of Defence in both Canberra and Jakarta. She has contributed numerous articles on Indonesia to The Interpreter, blog site of the Lowy Institute for International Policy and is author of 'Growing Convergence, Greater Consequence: The Strategic Implications of Closer Indonesia-China Relations', Security Challenges, (Spring 2011) and 'Reforming Indonesia's Foreign Ministry: Ideas, Organization and Leadership', Contemporary Southeast Asia, 35, no. 1 (April 2013).
Aaron L. Connelly is a Research Fellow in the East Asia Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, where he focuses on Southeast Asia, and Indonesia in particular. His research interests include Indonesian politics and foreign policy, Australia-Indonesia relations, the geopolitics of Southeast Asia, and the US role in the region.
Prior to joining the Lowy Institute, Aaron worked at Albright Stonebridge Group, a commercial diplomacy consultancy headquartered in Washington. As a director at the firm, Aaron assisted companies and non-profits in understanding political risks to investments and operations in Southeast Asia. As special assistant to the chair of the firm, former US National Security Advisor Samuel R. Berger, Aaron collaborated closely with Mr. Berger on foreign policy matters, conducting research for and representing Mr. Berger in a variety of outside initiatives, including those regarding the US role in East Asia.
Aaron's position at the Lowy Institute is supported by the Lowy Institute’s Engaging Asia Project which was established with the financial support of the Australian Government.
