The Reasons Behind Indonesia’s Unwillingness To Join The Military Coalition Of Saudi Arabia Against Global Terrorism

Abstract

This paper studies and analyses the reasons of which Indonesia refuses to join the military coalition initiated by Saudi Arabia against global terrorism. In general, there are two reasons for Indonesia to reject to join the military coalition. Firstly, the principles of foreign policy Indonesia embodying are active free policy as well as a non-aligned movement which make it possible for the country not to participate or take a side with any superpower countries. Secondly, Indonesia has its steps to counter the action of terrorism by using a soft approach. Therefore, Indonesia has no interest in joining the coalition with Saudi Arabia formed due to its hard power and approached through the military to combat the issue. This research uses the theory of rational choice to analyse foreign policy making influenced by Indonesian domestic factors towards the creation of the Saudi Arabia’s coalition which incorporated the Indonesian name unilaterally into the coalition member’s list.

Keywords: Terrorism, the military coalition of Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, foreign policy, rational choice theory