In my essay “The Jakarta Switch” I argue, among other things, that Indonesia faces some big decisions about how it wants to operate in the new Asia – an Asia in which China will wield a lot more power and influence, while America will wield a lot less. I comment that Indonesia’s decisions will be immensely significant for Australia, because they will help determine how closely we can work together, and working with Indonesia will be very important indeed for us as we navigate the new Asia in the difficult decades ahead.
Both Philips Vermonte and John McCarthy, in their responses to that essay, send the ball back across the net, suggesting that Australia too has some choices to make. They say that if we want to work more closely with Jakarta to manage the strategic and economic consequences of Asia’s power shift, we need to get our own thoughts in order as well.