Abstract:
Indonesia was expected to cooperate regionally based on the ASEAN Agreement
on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) in response to the 2015 Southeast
Asian haze that affected the Southeast Asian region. Instead, Indonesia opted to
sidestep ASEAN haze cooperation. Using the elite consensus concept by Randall
Schweller, the writer finds Indonesia’s foreign policy elites formed a consensus to
underbalance or underreact to the haze and forest fires threat to protect its national
political and economic interests. Furthermore, the haze and forest fires were
prolonged and had severe economic and health impacts on Indonesia and the region
as a result. The findings support the neoclassical realism theory wherein, states
deviate from behaviour expected by international pressures due to unit-level factors,
such as the elites’ perception and domestic politics. It contributes to neoclassical
realism by adding that other than elite dissensus, elite consensus can also lead to
underbalancing. It can be inferred from these findings that President Joko Widodo
and the other ministers colluded during the foreign policymaking process to ensure
that the chosen policy protects their shared interests in developing the palm oil
industry with minimal international scrutiny into the country’s environmental
practices.
