The Bureaucrats

Abstract

This chapter looks at how bureaucrats shape the criminal justice relationship between Australia and Indonesia in the context of cooperation between their national police forces. Adapting Mathieu Deflem’s theory of bureaucratic autonomy, it argues that the close cooperation between the Australian and Indonesian police since the late 1990s is due to their relative independence from national politics and the professional subculture that they share. At the core of this police culture is a common policy interest in combating transnational crime. The chapter also suggests that other bureaucrats from the two countries may share professional subcultures that facilitate cooperation between them.