Observer: Indonesia Must Prepare National Resilience Amid Global Conflict
Jakarta – A defence and security observer from the Institute for Security and Strategic Studies (ISSES), Khairul Fahmi, has stated that Indonesia needs to prepare national resilience amid escalating global geopolitical conflict tensions.
Speaking to ANTARA in Jakarta on Monday, Khairul explained that current escalation in the Middle East will impact energy supply chain disruption and drive up global oil prices. This would strike Indonesia’s domestic economic stability, requiring a layered and holistic national resilience framework to be established following the outbreak of the Iran-Israel war on Saturday (28/2).
“Indonesia’s preparations must be grounded in the concept of layered and holistic National Resilience. Militarily, we need a solid Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) strategy to prevent foreign forces from operating freely in our exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and territorial waters,” he said.
Based on Indonesia’s strategic geographical position, Khairul explained that strategic vulnerabilities are highly possible, making an A2/AD strategy essential for addressing the current global war scenario in maritime areas. Indonesia currently lacks strong maritime deterrence capability, including risks of violation by warships from conflicting nations and the establishment of proxy territories within Indonesia’s maritime sovereignty.
“The Strait of Malacca, Sunda Strait, and Lombok Strait, which form part of the Indonesian Archipelagic Sea Lanes (ALKI), are the lifeblood of global trade and military logistics,” he said.
Furthermore, Khairul explained that national resilience does not rely solely on the military. Given threats to energy supply chains, critical infrastructure development including electrical networks, telecommunications, banking, and government data systems must be protected with state-of-the-art cyber defence architecture.
“Modern warfare will certainly be preceded by cyber attacks targeting the paralysis of vital facilities before the first shot is fired,” he stated.
Additionally, Khairul believes Indonesia needs to revitalise the people’s defence and security system (Sishankamrata). This effort should not be merely military mobilisation, but rather building civilian resilience and adaptive capacity. “The concept of the universal people’s defence and security system (Sishankamrata) also needs to be revitalised in my view. Not simply for military mobilisation, but to build civilian resilience or the capacity of society and the state to endure, adapt, and recover quickly from logistical and information crises caused by global war,” he said.