THE KEMITRAAN NEGARA BERKEMBANG (KNB) DIPLOMACY: LEVERAGING SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM TO ADVANCE INDONESIA’S EPISTEMIC SOFT POWER IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH
Keywords:
developing country partnership diplomacy, epistemic infrastructure, south-south cooperation, developing country partnership scholarship program, global south
Abstract
This research conceptualizes Indonesia’s Kemitraan Negara Berkembang (KNB) Scholarship Program as an epistemic infrastructure that challenges the Western-centric foundations of international relations (IR) and reconfigures South-South cooperation (SSC). Anchored in constructivism, Global South theory, decolonial epistemologies, and pluriversal diplomacy, the study adopts a qualitative design using document analysis, alumni narratives, and autoethnographic reflection. The findings demonstrate that KNB operationalizes a non-aligned, post-hegemonic vision of global order by facilitating cross-cultural academic mobility, legitimizing indigenous knowledge systems, and cultivating scholar-diplomats as non-state agents of diplomacy. The study concludes that KNB Diplomacy strengthens Indonesia’s normative leadership and offers a replicable framework for ethical, plural, and transformative international cooperation grounded in epistemic justice.
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References
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Quijano, A. (2000). Coloniality of power and Eurocentrism in Latin America. International Sociology, 15(2), 215-232. https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580900015002005
Raz, J. (1988). The morality of freedom. Oxford: Claredon Press.
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Pantheon Books.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Oxford University Press.
Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the Subaltern speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (pp. 271-313). University of Illinois Press.
Stoeckel, F. (2016). Contact and Community: The Role of Social Interactions for a Political Identity. Political Psychology, 37(3), 431–442. doi, 10.1111/pops.12295.
Suwanbubbha, P. (2005). Bandung 2005 and educational challenges in the age of globalisation. In D. Khudori (Ed.), Bandung 2005: Rethinking solidarity in global society. The challenge of globalisation for social and solidarity movements. Yogyakarta: Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Gadjah Mada University, and Yayasan Pondok Rakyat.
Wendt, A. (1992). Anarchy is what States Make of it: The Social Construction of Power Politics. International Organization, 46(2), 391–425. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2706858
Zavarce Velasquez, C.D. (2024). Understanding South-South Cooperation: A Comparative Analysis with North-South Cooperation Approaches. Global South Review 6(1). https://doi.org/10.22146/globalsouth.95038
Alcoff, L. M. (2007). Mignolo’s epistemology of coloniality. CR: The New Centennial Review, 7(3), 79–101. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41949566
Amin, S. (1989). Eurocentrism. Monthly Review Press.
Bello, W. (2019). Revisiting & reclaiming deglobalization: Focus on the Global South. 4th Floor Wisit Prachuabmoh Building, Chulalongkorn University, Phayathai Road, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
Bernal, M. (1991). Black Athena: The afroasiatic roots of classical civilization (Vol. 2). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Buzan, B., Wæver, O., & de Wilde, J. (1998). Security: A new framework for analysis. Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Chen, K.-H. (2010). Asia as method: Toward deimperialization. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822391692
Dados, N., & Connell, R. (2012). The Global South. Contexts, 11(1), 12–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536504212436479
de Sousa Santos, B. (2014). Epistemologies of the South: Justice against epistemicide. Routledge.
Demeter, M. (2020). Academic knowledge production and the Global South: Questioning inequality and underrepresentation (1st ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52701-3
Directorate General of Higher Education, Research and Technology, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Republic of Indonesia (DGHE-RT, MoEC-RT, RI). (2021). Build your intellectual pathway with KNB scholarship (2nd Edition).
Dussel, E. (1995). The invention of the Americas. Trans. Michael D. Barber. New York: Continuum.
Escobar, A. (1995). Encountering development: The making and unmaking of the Third World. Princeton University Press.
Fanon, F. (1952). Peau noire, masques blancs. Éditions du Seuil.
Fanon, F. (2008). Black skin, white masks (R. Philcox, Trans.). Grove Press.
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowldge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972–1977. Ed. Colin Gordon. Trans. Colin Gordon, Leo Marshall, John Mepham, Kate Soper. New York: Pantheon.
Dunford, R. 2017. Toward a decolonial global ethics. Journal of Global Ethics 13(3):380-397. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449626.2017.1373140
Gerale, C.P. (2025). Beyond hegemony: how KNB scholarship program redefines Indonesia’s soft power and Global South knowledge production. Global South Review, 7(1), 101-138. http://dx.doi.org/10.22146/globalsouth.103684
Hegel, G. W. F. (1955). Die vernunft in der geschichte [The Reason in History]. In Samtliche Werke (Vol. 2, p. 167), edited by J. Hoffmeister and F. Meiner. Hamburg: F. Meiner.
Kant, I. (1784). Answering the question: What is enlightenment?
Khudori, D. (2006). Towards a Bandung spirit‐based civil society movement: reflection from Yogyakarta commemoration of Bandung Asian‐African Conference. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 7(1), 121–138. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649370500463240
Knight, J. (2014), The limits of soft power in higher education, University World News, no. 305. January 2015. Retrieved from http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20140129134636725.
Lai, A., & Kan, K. H. (2020). Critical tourism as a pedagogy for art education abroad. Studies in Art Education, 61(2), 142-154.
Latour, B. (2017). Facing Gaia: Eight lectures on the new climatic regime. London: Polity Press.
Matheson, J. (2024). The philosophy of epistemic autonomy: Introduction to special issue. Social Epistemology, 38(3), 267–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2024.2335623
Mignolo, W.D. (1995). The darker side of the Renaissance: Literacy, territoriality, and colonization. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Ndlovu, S., & Woldegiorgis, E. T. (2024). Neoliberal labyrinth: Epistemic freedom and knowledge production in higher education in the Global South. Transformation in Higher Education, 9(0), a412. https://doi.org/10.4102/the.v9i0.412
Ntsobi, M. (2024, August). Epistemology of the South – A perspective for decolonising knowledge production and global inclusion. Paper presented at the 3rd Conference of Anthropology and Development Studies Annual International Hybrid Conference, University of Zululand.
Quijano, A. (2000). Coloniality of power and Eurocentrism in Latin America. International Sociology, 15(2), 215-232. https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580900015002005
Raz, J. (1988). The morality of freedom. Oxford: Claredon Press.
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Pantheon Books.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Oxford University Press.
Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the Subaltern speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (pp. 271-313). University of Illinois Press.
Stoeckel, F. (2016). Contact and Community: The Role of Social Interactions for a Political Identity. Political Psychology, 37(3), 431–442. doi, 10.1111/pops.12295.
Suwanbubbha, P. (2005). Bandung 2005 and educational challenges in the age of globalisation. In D. Khudori (Ed.), Bandung 2005: Rethinking solidarity in global society. The challenge of globalisation for social and solidarity movements. Yogyakarta: Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Gadjah Mada University, and Yayasan Pondok Rakyat.
Wendt, A. (1992). Anarchy is what States Make of it: The Social Construction of Power Politics. International Organization, 46(2), 391–425. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2706858
Zavarce Velasquez, C.D. (2024). Understanding South-South Cooperation: A Comparative Analysis with North-South Cooperation Approaches. Global South Review 6(1). https://doi.org/10.22146/globalsouth.95038
Published
2025-08-05
How to Cite
Gerale, C. (2025). THE KEMITRAAN NEGARA BERKEMBANG (KNB) DIPLOMACY: LEVERAGING SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM TO ADVANCE INDONESIA’S EPISTEMIC SOFT POWER IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH. Indonesian Journal of International Relations, 9(2), 249-272. https://doi.org/10.32787/ijir.v9i2.687
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