Foreign Policy Talks

In this episode, I interviewed Professor Daniel S. Markey, Senior Research Professor, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) to talk about his views on Biden’s foreign policy and the United States’ engagement with Asia particularly China. Some important questions are given to him such as what are the major Biden’s foreign policy towards China, how quick and how realistic is Biden’s goal to put back the US global leadership? How does Prof. Markey see the future developments of the Quad and how much likely China will balance the Quad by another military or security alliance in the region?

Most importantly, I raised a question based on my personal curiosity on how would the United States win the competition against China in this contestable Southeast Asia region? Check this episode on Spotify and available on Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts too.

Hear my conversation with Kateryna Tsybenko from Ukraine, Stella Nderitu from Kenya and Neta Cynara from Indonesia about the role of women in politics, democracy and diplomacy today. What are the challenges they face in those field and what should be given to women to be more empowered in the future? Happy International Women's Day!

This interview is discussing about the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a deal signed by fifteen Asia- Pacific states last year. Overall, RCEP will create the most populous trade area globally, and it joins together several of the world's largest economies, like China, Japan, and South Korea, arguably the largest trade deals in the world.

Is the claim of ASEAN's victory over this RCEP correct and acceptable? RCEP brings countries with different levels of economic development. An analysis stated that there are fiscal and cultural differences among those countries, which arguably promote more gaps that are difficult to bridge. How to ensure the output of this deal can equally be distributed? What are the benefits of RCEP to Indonesia’s economy? Will there be any risks given by this deal on Indonesia’s industries? why did India out from this deal?

I explored those questions with Dr. Donna Gultom, a Trade Expert and Board Member of Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS), former Director of Trade Negotiation for ASEAN at the Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade.

In this episode, I had a conversation with Parker Novak, Resident Program Director for the International Republican Institute (IRI), a Washington, DC-based non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting freedom and democracy worldwide. Parker is an international policy and political professional with an outstanding knowledge on Indonesia-U.S. relationship.

I explored the most significant challenges for President Biden to address the problematic domestic issues and the ambitious foreign policy goals of his administration. Considering Biden's long and extensive foreign-policy experience and the team of familiar figures from the Obama and Clinton administrations, what can we expect from the U.S. foreign policy in the next four years judged or assessed from his foreign policy team? Moreover, for couple of times, we heard that Biden wishes to re-engage Asia, what steps must be taken first? dealing with China? What is his projection of the Indonesia-United States bilateral relationship?

Overall, we discussed this important question, has the United States regained its global leadership?

In this episode, I talked to three young foreign policy enthusiasts who have been working on the field for some years, Frederik Wrist, an active foreign policy writer and postgraduate student on International Relations at the University of Birmingham, Esther Tamara, associate researcher at Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia, she is also a graduate of International Relations, Political Science, and Economics from University of Massachusetts, Boston and Ignatius Randy, a young Indonesian diplomat posted at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

We explored the future relationship between Beijing and Washington, particularly after seeing the positive tone given by Premier Xi Jinping to uphold the spirit of non-conflict and non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, in which will focus on cooperation, control differences and promote healthy and stable development of Chinese-U.S. relations.

Biden has an extensive knowledge and experience on Asia from his previous positions, his team in the White House also have a strong background that believed by many analysts give the hopes to a better relationship with Asia. What are the challenges for Biden and his team in engaging Asia especially with Trump legacies on the ground? Should Biden keep the U.S.  tough on China? What are the best strategic ways for Biden to regain trust towards the United States particularly from Southeast Asian countries?