Indonesia's previous political phase, like the tenure of its dominant figure, current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was defined by a primal geopolitical struggle for order, stability and national unity in the aftermath of several years of political fragmentation, economic disorder and pent-up regional separatist tendencies. It was also characterized by a decadelong economic boom fueled largely by exports of energy, raw materials and low-end goods to the manufacturing powerhouses of East and South Asia. Recent changes in Indonesia's external environment — notably, China's economic transition and slowdown and the global diffusion of manufacturing activity they have spurred — are shifting the way the archipelago operates.