WEAI Symposium in Jakarta, Indonesia

Presenters: H.E. Marty M. Natalegawa, H.E. Mari E. Pangestu, Charles Armstrong, Shiro Armstrong, Edward Aspinall, Robert J. Barnett, Myron L. Cohen, Gerald L. Curtis, Yosef Djakababa, Rafendi Djamin, Nicholas Farrelly, Tyrell Haberkorn, Paul Hutchcroft, Merit E. Janow, Clara Joewono, Lia Kent, Prajak Kongkirati, Herman Joseph S. Kraft, Xiaobo Lü, Andrew MacIntyre, Duncan McCargo, Katherine Morton, Ann Marie Murphy, Andrew J. Nathan, Benjamin Reilly, Yongwook Ryu, Rizal Sukma, Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, Peeradej Tanruangporn, William T. Tow, Philips J. Vermonte, Jusuf Wanandi, Hugh White

The Jakarta symposium, “Intersections of Power, Politics and Conflict in Asia,” brought together leading scholars from Columbia University, Australian National University, and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta, to examine the rising tensions between Southeast Asian nations, East Asian powers, and the United States, and the urgent domestic political challenges faced by countries in the world's most economically dynamic region. Southeast Asian nations are grappling with shifting power dynamics just as their own societies are struggling for political stability and legitimacy in the face of internal conflicts, debates about justice and challenges to the integrity of electoral politics.

The three-day conference parsed the shifting dynamics of regional power and highlighted the remarkable scholarship that is keeping apace of the region’s dynamism. The conference drew on the Columbia faculty’s regional expertise in East Asia and provided a comparative analysis of the varying political and security concerns in Northeast and Southeast Asia. The Jakarta event was the first major symposium held by Columbia University in Southeast Asia and reflected the Weatherhead East Asian Institute’s commitment to enhancing the understanding of an area that sits on the fault lines of global change.