34 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
males: 2,201,047 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$1.3 billion (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
3% (2004)

Transnational Issues Indonesia

Disputes - international:
East Timor-Indonesia Boundary Committee continues to meet, survey
and delimit land boundary, but several sections of the boundary
remain unresolved; Indonesia and East Timor contest the sovereignty
of the uninhabited coral island of Palau Batek/Fatu Sinai, which
hinders a decision on a northern maritime boundary; a 1997 treaty
between Indonesia and Australia settled some parts of their maritime
boundary but outstanding issues remain; ICJ's award of Sipadan and
Ligitan islands to Malaysia in 2002 left maritime boundary in the
hydrocarbon-rich Celebes Sea in dispute, culminating in hostile
confrontations in March 2005 over concessions to the Ambalat oil
block; the ICJ decision has prompted Indonesia to assert claims to
and to establish a presence on its smaller outer islands; Indonesia
and Singapore pledged in 2005 to finalize their 1973 maritime
boundary agreement by defining unresolved areas north of Batam
Island; Indonesian secessionists, squatters, and illegal migrants
create repatriation problems for Papua New Guinea; piracy remains a
problem in the Malacca Strait

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
IDPs: 535,000 (government offensives against rebels in Aceh; most
IDPs in Aceh, Central Kalimantan, Maluku, and Central Sulawesi
Provinces); 441,000 (resulting from 26 December 2004 tsunmai) (2004)

Illicit drugs:
illicit producer of cannabis largely for domestic use; possible
growing role as transshipment point for Golden Triangle heroin

This page was last updated on 20 October, 2005

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@Iran

Introduction Iran

Background:
Known as Persia until 1935, Iran became an Islamic republic in 1979
after the ruling monarchy was overthrown and the shah was forced
into exile. Conservative clerical forces established a theocratic
system of government with ultimate political authority nominally
vested in a learned religious scholar. Iranian-US relations have
been strained since a group of Iranian students seized the US
Embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979 and held it until 20 January
1981. Du