The global war on terrorism created pressure for Indonesia to improve its security measures for dealing with maritime terrorism. Following the 9/11 attacks and the 2002 Bali bombings, Indonesia has improved the security of its major ports and entered various international agreements to ensure its trading activities are not impeded. At the same time, in a bid to secure small ports and coastal areas in various parts of the country, preman—self-supporting, autonomous paramilitary—organizations began to play a greater role. This book explores the involvement of preman organizations in securing ports and coastlines in Jakarta, North Sulawesi, and the Riau Islands. The security of ports and coastal areas in the three provinces is of international importance because of their proximity to major sea lanes of communication. This book carefully maps out the tensions, contradictions, and implications of the use of preman organizations in the realization of Indonesia’s efforts to be a truly democratic civil society.

This book examines Indonesia’s strategies and policies to influence regional cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, focusing especially on Indonesia’s efforts to be the maritime fulcrum in the Indo-Pacific during President Joko Widodo’s (Jokowi) administration from 2014 until the present. Highlighting the importance of Indonesia as the largest country in Southeast Asia and as a founder member of ASEAN, the book, based on extensive original research, provides key insights into Indonesia’s maritime policy decision-making since 2014. It discusses the domestic political context in which foreign policy decisions are made, provides an explanation for Indonesia’s efforts to project its vision of Indo-Pacific cooperation at the ASEAN level and beyond, and demonstrates how Indonesia strives to maintain a delicate balance in its interactions with major powers in the region, including the United States, China, and Japan.

Indonesia is the largest archipelago state in the world comprising 17,480 islands, with a maritime territory measuring close to 6 million square kilometres. It is located between the two key shipping routes of the Pacific and Indian Ocean. Indonesia’s cooperation in maritime security initiatives is vitally important because half of the world’s trading goods and oil pass through Indonesian waters, including the Straits of Malacca, the Strait of Sunda and the Strait of Lombok.