THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INDONESIA’S GASTRO DIPLOMACY TOWARDS THE UNITED STATES TO PROMOTE INDONESIAN CUISINE IN IMPROVING THE US-INDONESIA ECONOMIC RELATIONS (2018 – 2020)

Abstract

Indonesia is intensively conducting gastro diplomacy activities that can raise its national brand in order to achieve its national interest which is to improve the country's economy through the food industry. The United States is one of Indonesia's main targets because the United States is one of Indonesia's old partner countries that have existed for 70 years. The strategy taken by Indonesia in promoting its traditional food is to implement gastro diplomacy in the United States in which in practice, the implementation itself is not only be done by state actors but also non-state actors. Thereupon, this thesis will be using gastro diplomacy approach by Juyan Zhang to analyze the activities carried out by the state and non-state actors to promote Indonesian cuisine in the United States through information from social media, observing government reports, social media, website, news, and journals. This thesis found that the gastro diplomacy strategy has provided significant results in elevating Indonesia's brand image in the United States, even, since the comprehend implementation of gastro diplomacy, the American people are more aware of the Indonesian traditional food these days which resulted in increased economic cooperation between Indonesia and the United States.