Revisiting Indonesia’s Global Maritime Fulcrum Vision (Smart Power Strategy of Indonesia)

Abstract

Global Maritime Fulcrum (GMF) is the vision of Indonesia to become a sovereign, advanced, independent, strong maritime nation that is able to provide positive contribution for peace and security of the region as well as the world in accordance with its national interests. As the largest archipelago in the world, and also as one of the emerging powers, the GMF vision is one of the crucial junctures of Indonesia’s history. The objectives of GMF are multidimensional. While it aspires to enhance connectivity and infrastructure development of the country, this vision also expects to ensure peace and stability in the region. Against this backdrop, this particular study attempts to attain three main objectives, namely; (1) To understand Indonesia’s GMF vision; (2) To evaluate and critically analyze the measures taken by Indonesia in realizing its GMF vision; and (3) To examine the significance of GMF vision as a smart power strategy. The concept of smart power put forth by Joseph Nye jr highlights the importance of identifying the correct combination of soft power and hard power in producing effective foreign policy. Thus, this study examine the GMF vision as a smart power strategy and attempts to understand how successful Indonesia has been in bringing together its hard and soft power in attaining its national interests. This particular study is a qualitative case study research which takes into account both primary and secondary data and main sources of data collection includes speeches made by government officials, government documents, journals, annual reports etc. The GMF vision of Indonesia rests on three main pillars namely its foreign policy, defense policy and Ocean policy. Furthermore, given its significant geographical location as the largest archipelago and Indonesia being the largest country in the region of Southeast Asia in terms of geographical size, population and economy, GMF vision has major implications on Indonesia and on its role at both regional and international levels