Altruism or status-seeking: the global south and Indonesia's humanitarian aid to Afghanistan

Abstract

Humanitarianism and humanitarian aid are noble concepts and practices, but sometimes, they can be a controversial method of statecraft, employed solely for a country’s own national and international strategic interests. This issue is considerable in Global South countries, which, despite their low- and middle-income economic capacity (mostly not all), can still provide international humanitarian aid — as showcased by Indonesia’s regular provision of international aid to Afghanistan since 2001. Based on this assumption, this research seeks to understand whether Indonesian humanitarian aid to Afghanistan an altruism-based foreign policy is or prompted by a statecraft status-seeking strategy formed to shape and elevate Indonesia’s status as an emerging middle power in the Global South humanitarian index. The author employed a qualitative method to achieve this objective, relying on the process tracing technique for data analysis. By consulting numerous foreign affairs reports, index records, archival sources, and interviews, this research found that altruism isthe strongest motivation driving Indonesia’s humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Strategic interests, such as status-seeking, are also considerable factors, but most indicators showed that altruism, which is rooted in religious beliefs and the country’s Constitution, is the most significant reason for the aid. This is followed by Indonesia’s religious and historical solidarity with Afghanistan.