Indonesia's Efforts to Improve Its Soft Power In International Cooperation With The European Union

: International education cooperation is attached to soft power, because one of the instruments to form soft power is educational power. This study aims to describe the efforts that can be made by the Indonesian government to increase its soft power in international education cooperation with the European Union. The method used in this research is a qualitative method. Soft power is the main theory used in this research. This study found that to increase Indonesia's soft power in education cooperation with the European Union, nation branding in education must be realized and improved. Furthermore, Indonesia must also optimize and expand cooperation schemes in order to improve their bargaining position in cooperation negotiations. In addition, Indonesia can also empower local geniuses as an attraction in the field of education because it turns out that the European Union already has an interest in it. Therefore, this study concludes that Indonesia must change previous ways that have weakened Indonesia's bargaining position and use potential new ways to build educational power and increase its soft power in educational cooperation with the European Union.


INTRODUCTION
As a fundamental need that is one of the indicators of progress or decline in the civilization of a nation, the discourse on educational cooperation should receive a large portion of the discussion. However, the discourse on cooperation in education is still less competitive than the discourse on cooperation in the economic, political and security fields. This makes international educational cooperation a discussion that is not yet very developed in the scientific realm of  ISSN: 2987-6958 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 the Republic of Indonesia 2012) and entered into force in 2014 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia 2014).
Cooperation in the form of a comprehensive partnership should be utilized by the parties involved in a balanced way (Indraswari 2016). However, in the cooperation in the field of education that took place within the PCA framework between Indonesia and the European Union, Indonesia's bargaining position was relatively weak because in this cooperation Indonesia was in the position of a country asking for assistance. In fact, according to Amirbek (2014), in a comprehensive partnership, the impression that must appear is mutual benefit and mutual assistance, where the two parties who work together have a good bargaining position.
As stated by the Head of the Institute for Socio-Political Research and Development at the University of Indonesia (Fitriani 2021), there are several weaknesses in Indonesia's educational cooperation with the European Union, including the absence of a long-term concept of how to maintain and enhance educational agreements with the European Union. In addition, weak soft power also affects Indonesia's bargaining position. Another problem is Indonesia's nation branding in the field of education which has yet to materialize. Aprianto's study (2020) noted several problems in Indonesia's educational cooperation with the European Union. First, most universities in the European Union are in the world's top 100. This condition is a challenge because most universities in Indonesia do not have the confidence to cooperate with well-known European Union universities. Second, in the internal environment, universities in Indonesia still have a high gap. There are only a few campuses that can collaborate on an international scope, some of which are the Bandung Institute of Technology, the University of Indonesia, and Gadjah Mada University. This condition has great potential in weakening Indonesia's soft power in educational cooperation with the European Union. ISSN: 2987-6958 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 From the description above, it can be identified that one of the problems in international education cooperation between Indonesia and the European Union is the weakness of soft power which ultimately makes Indonesia's bargaining position weak. Therefore, efforts are needed to increase Indonesia's soft power in the field of international education cooperation with the European Union.
Departing from the assumption that Indonesia actually has potential and can be made efforts to increase its soft power in international education cooperation with the European Union, this paper will focus on describing efforts that can be made to increase Indonesia's soft power in international education cooperation with the European Union. within the PCA framework.

Theoretical Framework
In describing the efforts that can be made by Indonesia to increase soft power in international education cooperation with the European Union, this research uses the theory of soft power. Melissen (2005) says that Joseph S. Nye has introduced the term power in the context of international relations. Power, which was previously only concentrated on hard power, has recently developed. Nye introduced a new term which he called 'soft power'. Soft power is a postmodern variant of power over opinion that is becoming increasingly important in the global information age. Even in today's international relations, the loss of soft power can be a costly price for hard power, although the question of how to use soft power most effectively is still being asked today. According to Yani (2018), the use of soft power can help frame issues whose culture and ideas are closer to prevailing international norms, and whose credibility abroad is strengthened by their values and policies.
According to Nye (2004) soft power is the ability to get what one wants through attraction, not coercion or payment. It arises from the attractiveness of a country's culture, political ideals, and policies. Soft power rests on the ability to shape other people's preferences. Nye also made a drawing showing the difference between hard power and soft power, as follows: ISSN: 2987-6958 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 (2004) Nye (2004) details that a country's soft power rests primarily on three resources: its culture (places that other people find attractive), its political values (when it lives up to them inside and outside the country), and policies abroad (when they are considered legitimate and have moral authority). Meanwhile, culture can be conceptualized as a set of values and practices that create meaning for society. According to Burnay (2014), culture is manifested in several forms, including high culture such as literature, art, education that appeals to the elite, and popular culture that focuses on common mass entertainment. Stewart (2006) says that soft power is an indispensable 'supplement' to hard power. Soft power can assist in building relationships to advance the interests and values of a country. Cultural exchange and education programs are a form of soft power, especially in the digital age and hold the premise of being agents of deep and long-lasting positive change. Even Nye (1990) once said that knowledge or education is a core element of soft power. From the case study the ability of the United States (US) to maintain global leadership in the post-Cold War international system is through a superior chain consisting of resourcesmilitary, economic, scientific, cultural, and ideological. That is, this is a formulation between hard power and soft power. ISSN: 2987-6958 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 From some of the explanations above, it can be said that soft power is a fundamental element that supports the existence of hard power. In fact, after the Cold War, the US was able to maintain global leadership because of the empowerment of soft power that they did. Therefore, in the current era of international relations, it is important to use soft power to achieve the national interests of a country in cooperating with other parties.
Besides that, several important instruments in soft power were also identified, where science and education were one of them. This shows that education is one of the instruments of soft power that must be developed by a country in carrying out international relations at this time. Thus, in international cooperation, the education sector must also be encouraged as one of the important concerns in carrying out cooperation. Especially cooperation in the form of a comprehensive partnership as is currently taking place between Indonesia and the European Union.

METHODS
This study uses a qualitative approach. According to Moleong (2013), a qualitative approach emphasizes meaning, reasoning, definition, a certain situation (in a certain context), examines more matters related to everyday life. Therefore, the sequence of activities can change at any time depending on the conditions and symptoms found. Data collection techniques used in this study were interviews and literature study. According to Rachmawati (2007), interviews are a question-and-answer process in research that takes place orally between two or more people who are face to face. Moleong (2013) says that interviews can be conducted with certain individuals to obtain data or information about the right informants to dig up in-depth information about issues related to the object of research. By using these data collection techniques, the types of data in this study are primary data and secondary data. ISSN: 2987-6958 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023

Existence of Soft Power
Indonesia's relationship with the European Union member countries in the bilateral context has been established for a long time. According to the Ministry of Along the way, efforts to improve cooperative relations continue to grow (Umar 2014). Even though CEPA is synonymous with economic cooperation, it does not mean that the two parties only make the economic sector the target of their cooperation. The field of educational cooperation is also included as part of it. Eriza (2021) explains that educational cooperation between Indonesia and the European Union is related to points of cooperation agreed in the CEPA. For example, in relation to service trade cooperation, examples of cooperation in the education sector that are held include: related to improving the skills of Indonesian workers so they can be accepted to work in the European Union; training for Indonesian seafarers in order to obtain certification; certification of Indonesian nurse graduates so they can work in the European Union; and so forth. ISSN: 2987-6958 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 Thus, it can be said that the education sector is an integrated part of every point of cooperation agreed between Indonesia and the European Union at the PCA that was held. The integration of education into the fields of cooperation between Indonesia and the European Union can be evidence that the soft power dimension is starting to exist in the cooperative relations of the two parties. This reflection on the existence of soft power refers to the statement of Nye (1990) which says that knowledge or education is a core element of soft power.

International educational cooperation between Indonesia and the European
Union has a special purpose. From the Indonesian side, international education cooperation between Indonesia and the European Union during the PCA being held has the main objective of increasing the quality or quality and capacity of Indonesian education so that it can compete and be recognized internationally.

Coordinator of General Substance, Public Relations and Cooperation of the Directorate General of Higher Education, Yayat Hendayana (2021) in an interview
conducted by the author, said that from an Indonesian point of view, this goal is in accordance with the essence of Law no. 12 of 2012, Law on Higher Education, and Law No.14 of 2005, namely the Law on teachers and lecturers. In essence, the purpose of international educational cooperation held by Indonesia with the European Union and other countries is to improve the quality and capacity of education in Indonesia. This empirical finding is also in line with the theoretical essence of education as one of the core elements as stated by Nye (2005) above.
Unfortunately, in the course of the collaboration so far, it can be said that Indonesia has not been able to make optimal use of this educational collaboration.
An example is taking advantage of study opportunities in the European Union.
The European Union has several educational collaboration programs, such as International Credit Mobility (ICM), Erasmus Mundus, Jean Monnet (JM), and Horizon 2020. The ICM program can be seen in the following figure: In the Eramus scheme, data on international education cooperation between Indonesia and the European Union also does not show optimal figures, as can be seen in the following figure: From the explanation above, this study finds that the existence of soft power is clearly visible in Indonesia's cooperation with the European Union by making the education sector one of the important fields that is integrated into every field of cooperation. However, based on the data presented, Indonesia has not been able to optimize this collaboration in the context of increasing the number of Indonesian students studying in the European Union. Thus, the cooperation in the field of education is not optimal for Indonesia.

Cooperation with the European Union
This research found that there are at least two main lines of urgency to increase soft power in international education cooperation between Indonesia and the European Union. First, as an effort to minimize the negative image of Indonesia so far, where in international educational cooperation that is taking place, Indonesia is more dominated by the position of a recipient country. The second urgency is to increase Indonesia's bargaining position in educational cooperation in the PCA format that is taking place between Indonesia and the European Union.

Minimizing the Image of Indonesia as A Recipient Country
In the international education cooperation that has taken place between Indonesia and the European Union so far, each party has its own role. In an interview Thus it is not wrong if Indonesia is labeled as a country that has a weak bargaining position because it is only a recipient country.
The Indonesian Ambassador to Germany, Arief Havas Oegroseno, when interviewed by the author said that since 2016-2017 Indonesia has been included in the category of middle-income countries and has been out of the list of poor countries that must be assisted by the EU, in fact image as a recipient country must be repaired immediately. But unfortunately, many parties have not realized the change in Indonesia's position which has entered the middle-class country, so that it is still "comfortable" with its position as a recipient of aid.
From the above findings it can be seen that efforts to minimize Indonesia's image as a recipient country is a fundamental urgency to increase Indonesia's soft power in cooperation with the European Union. The hierarchy between aid providers and aid recipients is of course very clear and can have an impact on authority power within the scope of this cooperation. Indonesia's soft power will not be optimized if its position continues to be in an inferior position. Therefore, increasing soft power is an urgency that needs attention.
The new status as a middle-income country must be used as a historical momentum that can change Indonesia's image, which is not only positioned as a recipient country, as has been the case so far. The main target in changing the image is to change the mindset in collaborating. It is no longer time for Indonesia to position itself as a recipient country of aid. Indonesia must shift its position to become a partner country. The image as a partner country certainly cannot be achieved just like that. This image needs to be reflected in the actualization of the cooperation carried out.

Increasing Indonesia's Bargaining Position
Indonesia really needs an increase in soft power to improve its bargaining position. Regarding the bargaining position, there must normally be things that can be offered in such cooperation. In other words, the bargaining position cannot be improved if there is nothing to offer. Therefore, finding things that can be offered in educational cooperation with the European Union is a fundamental need besides the urgency of increasing soft power itself. European Union's Erasmus scholarship recipients. Now many universities have visited Indonesia and asked LPDP students from Indonesia to study on their campuses. In the research interview conducted, Eriza also said that Indonesia also has a Darmasiswa scheme managed by the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Besides that, there is also an Indonesian Language and Culture Scholarship (BSBI) managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Of the several schemes found in this research, Indonesia has many schemes that can be offered to the European Union in international education cooperation between the two parties. These schemes should be able to become "capital" for Indonesia to increase its bargaining position in educational cooperation with the European Union. Nevertheless, Indonesia still really needs to increase the quantity and quality of the schemes that can be offered to the European Union. Although the schemes owned by Indonesia are still few, if the government and education providers in Indonesia are optimal in utilizing existing schemes, of course it can improve Indonesia's bargaining position.
Increasing bargaining position is a target that must be achieved in cooperation in order to increase Indonesia's soft power in international education cooperation with the European Union. In addition, it is still very necessary to develop and improve the quality of the schemes offered. The more schemes that are offered, the bargaining position of Indonesia can increase.
As stated by Dean (1998), "soft power is made up of political power, cultural and educational power and diplomatic power". Therefore, when what is put forward in educational cooperation with the European Union is a request for assistance, Indonesia's educational power is in a weak position. However, when what is offered is a cooperation scheme with clear "products", educational power can be increased. Increasing educational power is an important target that must be considered because it is one of the main instruments in building soft power.

Cooperation with the European Union
The above section has described the findings regarding the existence of soft power and its urgency in international educational cooperation between Indonesia and the European Union. Therefore, the discussion in this section will focus on describing the efforts that can be made to increase soft power. This research found several efforts to increase Indonesia's soft power in international education cooperation with the European Union, including forming and increasing nation branding and mainstreaming local geniuses as an attraction for cooperation in education.

Forming and Improving Nation Branding
This research finds that the first effort to increase Indonesia's soft power in international education cooperation with the European Union is to realize and enhance Indonesia's nation branding. Nation branding is carried out so that Indonesia's image can improve better in the eyes of the European Union, so that the European Union becomes more interested and confident in conducting education with Indonesia. Nation branding in the field of education is very important because it can support the improvement of Indonesia's soft power in the field of education.

As stated by the Head of the Institute for Socio-Political Research and
Development at the University of Indonesia, Evi Fitriani (2021), Indonesia's weakness in educational cooperation with the European Union is that there is no long-term concept of how to maintain and improve agreements with the European Union. Many things were done suddenly, and the cooperation projects carried out had a short timeframe. Besides that, Indonesian education cooperation is becoming difficult to find consistent nation branding because it depends on who is leading and the period of his leadership. In the end, what is intended for branding always fails due to being inconsistent and not continuous. In addition, when trying to make branding, it does not represent common interests so that the formation of nation branding becomes difficult to achieve. ISSN: 2987-6958 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 From Fitriani's explanation, this study found that nation branding as an important instrument in increasing the optimization of international education cooperation for Indonesia has not materialized. In fact, nation branding is needed as "ammunition" in shaping Indonesia's soft power in the field of education.
Efforts to establish national branding have been carried out but are constrained by many problems. Starting from the problem of the regime's interests to the inconsistent behavior of the parties that make up the nation branding.
Thus, to increase Indonesia's soft power in international education cooperation with the European Union, the formation of nation branding is an urgent need and must be completed immediately. This is very reasonable, because Indonesia's ability to create good nation branding in the education sector will of course be directly proportional to the increase in Indonesia's bargaining position and soft power in educational cooperation with the European Union.
The main step in forming and enhancing nation branding in the field of education is to make education itself a priority issue. In addition, there must be an effort to bridge the gap between the collaborating parties. In article 25 of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation between the European Community-RI regarding educational and cultural cooperation, it is said that the parties will focus on steps to create "bridges" between their respective specialized agencies to promote the exchange of information and publications, skills, students, experts, and technical resources, to promote Information and Communication Technology in Education. Article 25 of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation between the European Community-RI can certainly be the basis for establishing nation branding and creating bridges to minimize the gap that exists between the two parties.
It is appropriate for the Indonesian government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia to place education as one of the priority issues in the socio-cultural field, in addition to three other priority issues, namely mobility, harmony and tolerance between religious communities, as well as research and technology (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, 2014). Therefore, it is increasingly clear that education must be ISSN: 2987-6958 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 positioned as a priority issue. By placing education as a priority issue, it is hoped that related parties can focus on forming and improving nation branding, in order to increase Indonesia's soft power in the education sector.

Educational Collaboration
Aprianto (2020)  From these data it can be understood that there is a large gap in the ongoing international education cooperation between Indonesia and the European Union. Of course, this gap is still very difficult to "bridge" soon. Moreover, to harmonize, of course, it will take extraordinary effort. One of the efforts that can be made amid the current issues and limitations in the field of education is to empower local geniuses in Indonesia. Indonesia's local geniuses must be managed in such a way as to attract the attention of the government and the public in the European Union to make Indonesia a preferred destination for education or research.
Among the various local geniuses in Indonesian society, existence in pluralism is one of the attractions of the European Union towards Indonesia. As stated by the Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Germany, Arief Havas Oegroseno (2021), one of the attractions of the European Union in educational cooperation with Indonesia is the stability of society amidst the high diversity that exists in Indonesian society. ISSN: 2987-6958 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 For example, Germany is eager to learn from Indonesia in dealing with problems arising from pluralism. Germany feels that the extreme right movements, issues of terrorism and the like that they are currently facing, have been experienced by Indonesia beforehand. With the condition that the Indonesian people are still able to overcome these problems, Germany wants to learn from Indonesia. Germany wants to learn how to generate narratives so that they can be Similar findings were obtained from interviews with the Indonesian Ambassador to Germany, Oegroseno. Oegroseno (2021) said that the Indonesian people's quite good acceptance of plurality and respect for foreign nations in Indonesia turned out to be an attraction for inviting students from the European Union to Indonesia. The Indonesian nation can deal with problems that arise in society relatively well. Educational programs that value tolerance and pluralism in Indonesia are of particular concern to the European Union in general. The conducive situation of the Indonesian people in the midst of high heterogeneity is an attraction for the European Union because currently the European Union is still facing very complex problems due to migration flows of different cultures.
Pluralism and high tolerance in Indonesian society are the main attraction for the European Union.
From the findings above, the authors analyze that basically empowering Indonesian local geniuses can be a special attraction that can increase Indonesia's soft power in cooperation in education with the European Union. Competing "head-to-head" with education in the European Union is not the right choice because in the field of education, Indonesia is still far behind the European Union.
However, that does not mean that Indonesia does not have ways to increase its soft power in the education sector. Mainstreaming and managing local geniuses well turns out to be one of the important steps that can be taken by Indonesia to increase soft power in cooperation in education with the European Union.
This empirical finding is in line with the explanation of soft power theory by Nye. In his publication, Nye once explained that to emerge soft power, a country must be able to shape the situation and formulate a strategy so that other countries develop preferences or determine their interests in a way that suits their own interests. This power tends to arise from resources such as cultural and ideological attractions and the rules and institutions of international regimes (Nye 1990).
Here we can see the intersection and relevance between the theory and the empirical findings in this study. To increase soft power in international education cooperation with the European Union, Indonesia must be able to empower local geniuses as a strategy to increase Indonesia's bargaining position. The EU's interest in Indonesia's local genius can make Indonesia a preference for the EU to consider. In the findings of this study, one of the interests of the European Union is to develop tolerance in the midst of high migration flows from various cultures. Therefore, Indonesia must be able to seize this opportunity as a cooperation strategy. If the empowerment of local geniuses is managed effectively in Indonesia's educational cooperation strategy, then Indonesia's soft power in the education sector in the format of PCA collaboration with the European Union will be raised and enhanced. ISSN: 2987-6958 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 CONCLUSION This study concludes that Indonesia must immediately form and develop nation branding in the education sector. Forming and developing nation branding in the field of education should no longer depend on the interests of the ruling regime.
This study recommends that Indonesia needs to create a long-term concept to frame international education cooperation with the European Union so that Indonesia can obtain optimal benefits from the ongoing collaboration. The existence of a long-term concept and nation branding can improve the image of Indonesian education. Improving the image of Indonesian education is the main capital for forming educational power. Furthermore, educational power is an important instrument for building and enhancing Indonesia's soft power in the education sector.
This research also concludes that increasing soft power in international education cooperation with the European Union in the PCA format, Indonesia must shift its behavior to extremes. So far, in international education cooperation with the European Union, Indonesia is synonymous with the position of being "hands down". If previously most of the actualization of cooperation was in the form of financial assistance, assistance, facilities, and the like, then in efforts to increase soft power such methods are no longer relevant.
Indonesia must change the old style of cooperation in education with the European Union by preparing new cooperation schemes that can be negotiated in a more cooperative context. Negotiations in a cooperative context will improve bargaining position which will play an important role in increasing Indonesia's soft power. Therefore, this study recommends the importance of the government and stakeholders in the education sector to create and develop cooperative education cooperation schemes. Moreover, along with the change in Indonesia's position as a middle-income country, it is only fitting for Indonesia to change its ways of negotiating. ISSN: 2987-6958 JSGS Vol. 1. No. 1. (2023 Furthermore, this study also concludes that Indonesia's local genius has become a special attraction for the European Union in the context of education.
Empowering local geniuses is an important alternative because Indonesia has not been able to compete with the European Union, whose education is far superior to Indonesia's. When Indonesia is not yet able to compete at the same level, then the best way that can be done to increase the soft power in the field of education is to mainstream Indonesian local geniuses who have been eyed by the European Union. Empowerment of local geniuses must be able to bring out the preferences and attractiveness of the European Union to increase educational cooperation with Indonesia.