Awakening the geopolitical 'spirit': Transforming Indonesia's institutions to confront global challenges

The study of global governance has never been so interesting than the current situation as we face multi-faceted global socio-economic and political challenges. The presupposed peace that the post-Cold War unipolar world order would entail, has never come into fruition. Rather, we see conflicts increasing with their multitudes of consequences which create further set of problems. Globalization that is supposed to bring welfare to the global populace, while to some extent benefitting the developing countries, exacerbate inequality and create socio-economic tensions not only in developing countries but also developed ones, which in turn fuels antipathy toward globalization and the open-access order of the 21st century. These, coupled with the rise of emerging powers such as Russia and China, point toward the uncertain and largely unknown future of the global order. The implications for these sets of challenges to the national front cannot be underestimated and must be met with institutional transformation that seeks to leverage on the national identity and character of that nation. That is a task that Indonesia still has to grapple with. Yet, the answer to that, as this paper proposes, may lie in the geopolitical and historical values that have rarely been examined and cultivated in the institutional transformation discourse in Indonesia.