Indonesia Abandons Confrontation

Indonesia’s foreign policy has been the topic of all too few scholarly works. This condition is, however, rapidly changing, and we can now look forward during the next few years to the publication of several important studies. Among the highly qualified authors presently engaged in completing books o­n various aspects of this subject are: Indonesia’s former Vice-President, Mohammad Hatta; a former Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Mohamad Roem, and a former Foreign Minister, Anak Agung Gde Agung. Currently major studies are also well under way by Ambassador Howard Jones, Professor Frederick Bunnell, and Professor David Mozingo.


None of these ongoing studies, however, focuses o­n the very recent period described by Mr. Franklin Weinstein in the Interim Report which the Indonesia Project is here publishing. His report is concerned with one of the most significant, but at the same time o­ne of the most confusing, watersheds of Indonesian foreign policy. This is the process whereby Indonesia’s confrontation against Malaysia was brought to an end. A development of this significance, we feel, merits careful study now, even though the relevant data are as yet only partially available. It is our belief that a sufficient amount of pertinent material is o­n hand at this point to warrant the avowedly provisional account which Mr. Weinstein has undertaken with the encouragement of the Cornell Modern Indonesia Project. He, himself, wishes to emphasize the tentative character of his report and would appreciate it if those who read it, Indonesians in particular, would be kind enough to send him their criticisms and suggestions for the study’s improvement. It is his hope, and ours, that a substantial amount of such commentary will be sent him so that following his current sojourn and research in Indonesia, he will be in a position to publish a study of recent Indonesian foreign policy which will be more comprehensive and definitive in character. – George McT. Kahin, October 1968