University to offer course on disaster management

Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 03/18/2010 9:48 AM

Commemorating its first anniversary this month, the Defense University (Unhan) is set to develop a disaster-management study program in response to a string of natural disasters that have hit Indonesia in recent years.

The university, run by the Defense Ministry, also plans to develop a postgraduate study program in defense economics, in addition to its two existing study programs — under the National War College and Institute for Defense and Strategic Studies.

“This year Unhan will offer disaster-management and defense economics study programs. In coming years we will provide other study programs in line with the needs of Indonesia’s defense sector,” Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said in his speech at the university’s anniversary commemoration at the Presidential Palace on Wednesday.

Purnomo said Unhan, currently hosting 70 students with military and civilian backgrounds, would also strengthen its partnership with both domestic and foreign research institutions to help produce more research-based strategic policies in the defense sector.

Deputy National Education Minister Fasli Jalal said in a press conference after the event that a disaster management program was necessary, given that Indonesia had frequently been hit by natural disasters in the past few years.

The study of defense economics, meanwhile, is hoped to answer questions such as how to finance the defense sector and how it should be positioned amid the national need to boost economic growth.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the ceremony that the university should emerge as an institution with a special area of expertise that set it apart from related institutions abroad.

He suggested Unhan include, among others, guerrilla warfare, conflict resolution, counterterrorism, Islam and harmony in its study programs.

“Indonesia is rich in doctrines, theories and practices of guerrilla warfare, as has been recorded in the country’s long history of struggle for independence...” Yudhoyono said.

“And we have much experience in the field of conflict resolution, in which we’ve managed to settle conflicts through peaceful mechanisms, such as what we did in Aceh,” he added.

Its uniqueness would draw foreign students to study at Unhan, Yudhoyono said.

Purnomo said to mark the university’s anniversary, it would organize an annual Jakarta International Defense Dialog that would present defense experts from Indonesia and abroad.

Unhan has established partnerships with (among others) the National Defense University in the US, Cranfield University in Britain, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and the Center for Defense Strategic Studies in Australia to develop its curricula and study materials.

As part its anniversary celebrations, Unhan is also holding a two-day international seminar themed “Indonesia Towards 2025: Geopolitical and Security Challenges — Focus on Economy, Natural Resources and Energy Aspects,” in Jakarta on Wednesday and Thursday.