Indonesian foreign policy under President Jokowi

In this Lowy Institute Analysis, Aaron L. Connelly previews the likely direction of Indonesian foreign policy under President-elect Joko \u27Jokowi\u27 Widodo, highlighting major issues and profiling key advisers. Key findings: Jokowi will leave foreign policy-making to key advisers, creating greater opportunities for competition over policy between the institutions those advisers lead. This competition could make it more difficult for Indonesian foreign policy-makers to define a clear position on key issues. Amidst this greater turbidity, Indonesian leadership in regional affairs could take a hit. Jokowi’s closest advisers are sophisticated and internationalist, but other voices could push Indonesian foreign policy toward more nationalist positions at the margins, impacting on Indonesian relations with Australia

Congress and Asia-Pacific policy: dysfunction and neglect

Examines the role of the US Congress in policy toward the Asia-Pacific region. Key findings While partisan gridlock in Congress has hindered the execution of US foreign policy overall, it has disproportionately affected US policy towards the Asia Pacific because the region has had few champions in either house in recent years. To the extent individual members have focused on the region in recent years, it has often been in pursuit of narrow objectives focused on a single country or issue area, without reference to a broader strategy. Though there are signs of increased interest in the region among more junior members of the current Congress, the nature of that interest and whether it can be sustained will depend on how the Obama administration and its partners in the region engage them

Supersymmetric quantum mechanics and the Korteweg-de Vries hierarchy

The connection between supersymmetric quantum mechanics and the Korteweg- de Vries (KdV) equation is discussed, with particular emphasis on the KdV conservation laws. It is shown that supersymmetric quantum mechanics aids in the derivation of the conservation laws, and gives some insight into the Miura transformation that converts the KdV equation into the modified KdV equation. The construction of the $\tau$-function by means of supersymmetric quantum mechanics is discussed.Comment: 16 pages, latex, EFI 93/2