Toward Indonesia as Global Maritime Fulcrum: Correcting Doctrine and Combating Non-Traditional Maritime Threats

Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country in the world and has enormous potential
in the maritime sector. Therefore, President Joko Widodo aimed to turn Indonesia into a
maritime fulcrum of the world. However, this idea hampered by doctrinal errors rooted
from the community level to policymakers, including the doctrine of state defense. These
errors rendered Indonesia unable to play an important role using its strategic location as
the largest archipelagic country. Furthermore, piracy culture in some coastal communities
of Indonesia is also a problem that hinders international trade. Moreover, this condition
is further exacerbated by the threat of maritime terrorism that endangered Indonesian
seafarers. This paper uses the theoretical foundation by Alfred Thayer Mahan on Sea Power
to analyze what kind of policies should be taken by the government to solve the maritime
security holes in order to actualize the idea of Indonesia as the maritime fulcrum of the
world. Mahen stated that to become a powerful country in the world, a country should have
control over the oceans. Through this theory, solving maritime security holes in Indonesia
can be conducted by accumulating the strength of the sea in quantity and quality.