Indonesia: domestic politics and its influence in foreign policy towards China’s belt and road initiative

This thesis founded that the process of foreign policy change is a result of the domestic politics that change whenever there is a new leader that comes into power. Especially, when a newly elected president takes control, it always brings about change in the government actor; however, despite this, the political systems dominated by political elites and military still persist. The new government comes with new interests that results in a new foreign policy direction and goals as they may not have been satisfied with the previous government’s performance and the difference in terms of how they defined the term “national interest”. Moreover, the Chinese factor also played a different role in the SBY and Jokowi governments which resulted in great foreign policy shifts as well.