Peace for World Sustainability, Not War

The effect of the conflict between the two countries is indeed not light. According to the UN, around 345 million people in the world experience hunger due to the skyrocketing prices of food, energy, and fertilizers.

The Indonesian government hopes that at least the conflict does not disrupt the smooth logistics of food, energy, and fertilizer trade in countries around the world. The Russia-Ukraine war has created wide-ranging economic disruptions (Ozilli, 2022), as well as brought misery to the people of Ukraine and Russia, and has the potential to escalate into a source of global economic crisis.

The crisis is manifested at least in three ways. First, the war has become a source of inflation in the economies of many countries. The supply of essential goods has become increasingly scarce due to disruptions in supply chains, such as bans on shipping by sea or trucks on land in Russian territorial waters, in the delivery of food, energy, and fertilizer to various countries.

Secondly, Ukraine has long played a role as the world’s food basket for many countries. The rise in inflation has hit the lives of especially low-income or impoverished communities. Thirdly, the supply of petroleum has become scarce. Russia, the world’s second-largest fuel supplier, has had its exports rejected by European countries, resulting in Europe drawing fuel from other countries.

Furthermore, Russia retaliates by prohibiting foreign ships from passing through and using the waterways and air routes within the territorial jurisdiction of Russia, as well as blocking the trade activities of countries that pass through Russian sovereignty.

The trade barriers in the energy sector have resulted in a decreasing supply of fuel in many countries around the world for cooking, household lighting, and motor vehicles. The rise in fuel prices has become the cause of the increase in the prices of any goods for the needs of the community (Bluszcz & Valente, 2019).

The Russia-Ukraine war is not just a war between two countries, but has become a severe chaos as a geopolitical conflict or tension between nations on a large scale (Lee and Haupt, 2021). Regarding the impact of increased inflation on Indonesian society, Sugema et al. (2010) from IPB have studied the effect of inflation increases on poor rural communities in Indonesia, from inflation in various commodities such as food, clothing, beverages, tobacco, clean water, gas, electricity, health, education, sports, recreation, and transportation.

Rural poor households are the most affected by the increase in national food prices (Sidjabat 2022), even though logically rural communities are residents of agricultural areas and food reserves.

According to the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, Indonesia’s foreign policy adheres to the principle of free and active, which has three references. Firstly, Indonesia’s foreign policy should avoid being influenced by any country and should not be bound by either communist or capitalist blocks. Secondly, Indonesia’s foreign policy should solely serve the national interest of Indonesia, aimed at economic development, improving people’s welfare and social justice.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s foreign policy relies on diplomacy as “soft power”; with “smart power” policies that bring peace; supported by “hard power” of defense (military) and domestic security (police) (Noventari, 2014).

According to the Amadei study (2019), the sustainability of the world’s life can only be guaranteed through peace, not through the upheavals of war. Meanwhile, the 21st-century technology initiative for the welfare of the world community is not only from technological solutions, such as digital technology and artificial intelligence (Frei & Ramalingam, 2011); but primarily proactive leaders of countries in the world building peace as a foundation for collective life, as well as the role of domestic champions in creating social justice and community harmony.

According to a study by Budiana (2022), Indonesia’s foreign policy is directed by President Jokowi based on the aspirations of the Constitution. It is then implemented differently according to developments in international political maneuvers, but still directed towards the national interests of Indonesia.

One of President Jokowi’s focuses, according to Budiana (2022), is that Indonesian diplomacy is directed towards building Indonesia’s economic power so that it becomes a real part of the world’s economic power in a not-too-distant time.

Indonesian diplomacy is directed at building Indonesia’s economic strength.

In addition, through his Nawacita program, President Jokowi hopes that Indonesia can become the World Maritime Axis where Indonesia’s marine wealth can become a source of economic strength for Indonesia and contribute to the welfare of the world community through international trade from Indonesia. Therefore, President Jokowi took the initiative to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has been a source of global inflation and hunger in various countries.

The principle of free and active foreign policy of Indonesia contains two meanings, namely, first, Indonesia’s international political policy must bring Indonesian national interests; and second, Indonesia’s foreign policy is expected to realize national idealism as stated in the Constitution, namely educating the Indonesian people in national life, bringing prosperity to society, and realizing active participation in world peace and order.

Although foreign policy is external, international policy should be linked and support the goals of governance domestically, which is the welfare of national society’s interests, as an effective performance of Indonesia’s free-active policy in foreign politics.

Albert Widjaja is a strategic management and strategic intelligence lecturer, a member of ISMS, and the author of the books Strategic Management; Digital Transformation; and Artificial Intelligence.