INDONESIA'S EXPERIENCE IN HE WAR ON TERROR
Abstract
This book investigates Indonesia’s war on terror 2001—
2009. It asks three interrelated questions.Firstly, according to
the government’s perspective, who was responsible for the major
bomb attacks in Indonesia? Secondly, what sort of counterterrorism
policies did the government adopt? Finally, what are the main factors
that shaped the government’s counterterrorism policy during that
period?To explain the Indonesian government’s counterterrorism
policy, this study adopts “the logic of two-level games” (Putnam,
1988) as the theoretical framework. The model explains how
domestic politics and international relations get entangled and
influence the direction taken by the government’s policy. Based
on the theoretical framework, government policy is a function
of incentives and constraints both on the international and on the
domestic level. As “the gatekeeper” between the two levels game,
the government simultaneously processes these interdependent
incentives and constraints in its policy decision-making.
This book demonstrates that, although it never banned Al-
Jamaah Al-Islamiyah (AJAI) because of domestic considerations,
the government believes that the AJAI is a terrorist network
mostly responsible for the consecutive bombings in Indonesia.
Secondly, the present government has mostly relied on a “lawenforcement
approach” in fighting the terrorist network which has
been incrementally complemented with an “ideological approach”
to fight religious extremism. Finally,the pathway of Indonesia’s
counterterrorism policy was shaped by contradictory pressures
originating from the Muslim community and human rights groups
in the domestic political environment,on one hand,as well as
international pressures originating from the United States and its
allies, on the other hand.