Indonesia Crisis As An Example

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will have the most impact on international relations. It should be obvious that an economic transformation of the magnitude we have seen cannot help but have equally dramatic political consequences.
Asia is obviously a diverse region. It goes without saying that the economic meltdown will affect Japan’s politics dramatically differently than Malaysia’s. However, events during the last week have drawn our attention to one area of commonality: the effect of the economic crisis on the military in China and in Indonesia.
These two countries are not usually lumped together; they differ in profound ways. But they share this: they have both used their military forces for three missions – protection against foreign enemies, enforcement of internal security and development of the economy. During the previous generation, the latter role became more and more important for both the Chinese and Indonesian militaries.
But Asia’s recent economic crisis, the states and ...

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the military served not only as a means for stability, but also as a tool of modernity.
The Chinese and Indonesian armies played similar roles in controlling the social instability created by their charismatic leaders. Beginning with the October, 1965, backlash against the communists, the Indonesian military steadily asserted itself, and under the leadership of then-Gen. Suharto, the legacy of Indonesia’s founder Sukarno steadily diminished. The PLA intervened to crush the Mao-inspired Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The PLA’s intervention not only stabilized a China that was oscillating out of control and moving toward chaos, but it created the framework that led ...

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