The Strategy of Defence Diplomacy in Achieving National Interests and Maintaining the Sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia

Maintaining national unity and sovereignty is Indonesia's main goal to protect the people and promote general welfare. In addition, Indonesian defense is also the main focus of the government in realizing the integrity of the country. In achieving and securing these interests, diplomacy has always been the choice of the state as the dominant way to achieve these goals. Defense diplomacy is also part of Indonesia's total diplomacy. It means that the national defense system is carried out early by the government and carried out in a total, integrated, directed, and continuous manner. In practice, the state could use the resources it has, including military, economic, political, intelligence, natural and human resources, etc. All parties must agree that in conducting diplomacy, negotiation is very vital, so it could be said that the successful negotiations could also be interpreted as victory in diplomacy. To be able to negotiate well, the strength and ability of the bargaining position is an important requirement that must be owned by a nation. The bargaining position of a nation is strongly influenced by the nation's national power and one of the prominent components of that national power is the military component. This what makes the military difficult to separate from state diplomacy. This research is designed to gain an understanding of the defense diplomacy of the Republic of Indonesia in achieving national interests and defending the sovereignty of the nation. This study aims to analyze the role of Indonesia's defense diplomacy in achieving national interests and defending the nation's sovereignty. In addition, in this research the author also analyzes the factors that influence the role of defense diplomacy in achieving national interests and maintaining national sovereignty. This study uses a qualitative method with descriptive-analytical specifications, with the data obtained through observation and literature study. Data analysis techniques are more carried out in conjunction with data collection during research. The results of the study can be concluded that the role of defense diplomacy in achieving national interests is not optimal and its achievements are still limited to only defense issues; The factors that affect the role of defense diplomacy are viewed from several dimensions, which are the dimensions of the capacity and capability of the Indonesian National Military (Tentara Nasional Indonesia/TNI), the dimensions of cooperation between agencies and the dimensions of the arranging a diplomatic strategy, and based on this situation, Indonesia must strengthen its defense diplomacy strategy in order to achieve national interests and maintain the sovereignty of the Indonesian nation.