The Australian Strategic Policy Institute and Universitas Indonesia, with support from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, have launched Indonesia’s first virtual cyber diplomacy course developed by Indonesians for Indonesians. This marks a meaningful step toward building the nation’s human capital in an increasingly strategic domain. As global powers advance competing visions of digital sovereignty and openness, influence now flows as much through diplomacy as through technology, making it vital for middle powers such as Indonesia to help shape, not just follow, the global digital agenda.
The course features a video series and handbook introducing policymakers, researchers and civil society to key debates on sovereignty, international law, human rights and technological standards. As cyberspace becomes a theatre of global competition, the capacity to understand and influence international rules on digital security, data flows and responsible state behaviour is fast becoming an essential element of modern statecraft.
Indonesia has long participated in international cyber discussions, including the former UN Open-Ended Working Group on cyber and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ cybersecurity dialogues. Yet its contributions have tended to be reactive rather than strategic agenda-setting. Much of the government’s focus has been on domestic resilience: protecting critical infrastructure, coordinating incident response and combating cybercrime. With Indonesia’s internet user base projected to reach 230 million (81 percent penetration) in 2025, the expanding digital landscape brings a vastly larger attack surface, and cyber awareness and resilience are struggling to keep pace. While domestic efforts are important, diplomatic moves are just as crucial, including developing the capacity to shape how cyberspace is governed globally and ensuring that Indonesia’s interests are reflected in emerging norms and frameworks.
That capability gap is growing more significant as strategic competition affects the cyber domain. Indonesia, now one of the world’s most digitally connected societies, is also among the most exposed. Risks extend far beyond technical vulnerabilities, including ransomware, disinformation, and cyber operations targeting critical sectors and commercially valuable entities. They touch questions of sovereignty, trust and national security. In this context, cyber diplomacy is not a luxury; it is a necessary extension of foreign policy.
The Cyber Diplomacy Course was designed to help bridge that gap. It aims to cultivate a community of professionals—across government, academia, civil society and the private sector—that can interpret international norms and apply them to Indonesia’s context. Doing so deepens understanding of how norms of responsible state behaviour translate into domestic policy.
This initiative also recognises that cybersecurity cannot be managed by governments alone. Engineers must understand the diplomatic implications of technology design; journalists need to interpret cyber incidents responsibly; and diplomats must grasp the technical and legal realities of the systems they negotiate over. The course’s open-access format allows participants from diverse backgrounds to explore these intersections, helping seed a broader national conversation about Indonesia’s role in the digital world.
For Australia, supporting this initiative aligns with its broader objective of enhancing regional cyber resilience and trust. For Indonesia, it offers an opportunity to step-up its cyber diplomacy profile and shape norms and agendas. Both countries share an interest in a stable and rules-based environment, particularly as strategic competition spills into cyberspace.
The need for this kind of human capital investment is pressing. Global governance of cyberspace is still taking shape, with competing visions emerging from different parts of the world: Western democracies emphasise an open, secure and interoperable internet; other models prioritise state control and digital sovereignty. Indonesia’s tradition of non-alignment and its being Southeast Asia’s largest digital economy mean it’s uniquely placed to bridge global divides—if it develops the expertise to do so.
Building that expertise begins with education and dialogue. The course is a modest step toward equipping Indonesia’s policymakers, researchers and professionals to engage confidently in international forums on issues including data, international law and norms, cybercrime and cyber norms. The course’s modules and accompanying video explainers created in Bahasa Indonesia help inform Indonesian stakeholders of regional and global discussions. Over time, initiatives like this one could help the country articulate its own strategic doctrine for cyberspace that balances sovereignty with openness, and national interests with international cooperation.
Indonesia’s future as a cyber power will depend on how well it integrates technical capability with diplomatic understanding. Infrastructure and cybersecurity investments will remain essential, but influence in the digital age will be exercised as much through negotiation tables as through network defences. The measure of cyber power lies not only in a state’s cyber capability, but in how it shapes what others believe should and could be done.
Conversations beginning in classrooms today—covering international law, cybercrime and sovereignty—will shape how Indonesia engages the digital world tomorrow. The Cyber Diplomacy Course is a starting point for that journey. It’s a step toward a future in which Indonesia is not only secure in cyberspace, but active in defining how cyberspace itself is secured.