Geopolitical Threats in the Capital of the Nusantara as Seen Through the Five Pillars of National Resilience

Abstract

The relocation of Indonesia’s capital city from Jakarta to Nusantara, mandated by Capital City Law No. 3 of 2022, represents one of the most significant geopolitical decisions in the nation’s recent history. While the relocation is intended to redistribute economic burdens and reduce disparities between Java and other islands, it simultaneously creates a new set of geopolitical threats that must be anticipated within the framework of Indonesia’s National Resilience concept. This study employs a qualitative descriptive method through library research, drawing on secondary data from government publications, statistical agencies, and peer-reviewed literature to examine potential threats surrounding the new capital through the lens of Panca Gatra, the five dynamic aspects of National Resilience: ideology, politics, economy, socio-culture, and defense-security. The findings indicate that each gatra presents distinct yet interrelated risks. The ideological dimension faces exposure to foreign influences and deviant belief movements amplified by globalization; the political dimension is vulnerable to identity politics amid the region’s ethnic and religious heterogeneity; the economic dimension confronts budget overruns and inflationary pressures without guaranteed GDP growth; the socio-cultural dimension risks increasing poverty rates and the erosion of local cultural values due to the influx of migrant populations; and the defense-security dimension is shaped by the capital’s geographic proximity to the ALKI II international shipping lane and the Indonesia-Malaysia border. These findings suggest that the five gatra are mutually reinforcing rather than isolated, and that the success of the Nusantara capital project depends on the government’s capacity to manage these threats in an integrated manner, thereby strengthening the synergy between the natural Tri Gatra and the dynamic Panca Gatra to establish a resilient Asta Gatra model of national life.