Condemned to Crisis? By Ken Ward. Sydney: Penguin Books and Lowy Institute for International Policy, 2015. Hardcover: 152pp. Condemned to Crisis? could not have come at a better time. While Indonesia--Australia bilateral relations have often been subject to ups and downs, roller coaster ride seems to have grown erratic in recent years. Indeed, lunging from crisis to crisis has seemingly become the new normal in how Jakarta and Canberra deal with one another, even as Australian observers maintain that a warm with is invaluable. Ken Ward, however, provides a sobering and lucidly written assessment of why this is mistaken. His message is clear: Australia needs to be more realistic about its bilateral and should not adopt wildly ambitious goals vis-a-vis Indonesia (p. 24). Ward claims that describing Australia's with as most important regional strategic relationship (p. 47) neither enhances Canberra's negotiating strength nor elicits appreciation from Indonesia. Instead, Ward calls on Australian political elite to adopt a measured approach, improve political communication and avoid using as a domestic partisan political football. The book examines how Indonesia's history has shaped its foreign policy, how Indonesia-Australia has been entangled by domestic politics of both countries, and role of political communication and culture. Throughout, Ward provides thought-provoking analyses as he debunks a few prevailing myths in bilateral relationship. He correctly debunks, for example, a long-held myth that bilateral relations are difficult due to cultural differences (pp. 56-61). He claims that such a view conflates a certain variant of Javanese culture with Indonesian culture as a whole, and that cultural accounts fail to offer a reliable guide on how Indonesian leaders may react in crisis situations with Australia. Overall, book is a refreshing and important addition to ongoing debate over management of this bilateral relationship. Written for Australian public in mind, it has rightfully fostered numerous debates in Australian media and elsewhere. However, rather than rehashing these debates, I will closely examine book's analyses of Indonesia, which underpin its policy recommendations. Here, unfortunately, it falls short of providing a thorough, balanced and nuanced understanding of Indonesia. At times, analyses are crowded out by cherry-picked quotes, contradictions and unnecessary innuendos. Ward's thesis--Canberra should avoid big dreams and focus on building a stable of weathering storms --contradicts his own claim that past crises that engulfed only had a limited impact on investment and trade, educational exchanges or tourism (pp. 26-27). If status quo is already capable of weathering bilateral storms, why aim for something better? This confusion may be due to an absence of a clear framework to assess evolution in this bilateral relationship. Ward suggests that we compare Indonesia-Australia relations with Indonesia-Singapore and Indonesia-Malaysia relations (pp. 34-50), but he does not persuasively explain why those comparisons are pertinent. Singling out distance as a variable seems like an odd choice since has eight neighbors--and a cursory citing of Stephen Walt's Origins of Alliances to justify this focus on neighbourly threats is not a substitute for case selection analysis. Furthermore, lack of substantive evidence for some of his claims exacerbates such analytical concerns. He points out, for example, that Sukarno's view of world--that it is dominated by exploitative forces--has endured in one form or another ... [and] underlies continuing suspicion of foreign investment and striving for self-sufficiency (pp. 31-32). But he offers no evidence to show whether and how it endures. …
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Dec 5, 2023
Noufou Ouedraogo 
Open Access