What is a.o. Indonesia?

This is the third time that this question has been asked. While not everyone has given the same answer, i think it is reasonable to say that we've decided that "a.o." means "among others." So, " . . . the first foreign security policy is to fight terrorism: capacity building support in countries of the region (among others, Indonesia, Philippines)."

You should understand that this is not a standard abbreviation in English. It appears that the author has made this abbreviation up, or that it is common in Australia, but unknown in the United States.

This question has been asked by several other members.
http://able2know.org/topic/169299-1
and more recently
http://able2know.org/topic/169330-1

the ony reference I can find to AO (and it is a dissimilar reference in that your question is about a.o. not AO) relates to the Phillipnes.

PHILJAFA Execs and JICA Philippines AO attend 4th JICA Alumni Regional Seminar in Indonesia

It is not a commomn abreviation in Australia that i am aware of.
It may stand for Asia and Oceana
It may stand for Among Others.

Please post the full title of the document or its source or a link.

You should also understand that it considered polite and good manners to say thank you even when answers provided have not been definitive

Do you think "among others" would work in that context?

My guess is only the author will be able to tell us. Why a German student of politics based at the university of New york is writing (badly) About Australian foreign policy is anyones guess.

why dont you phone her up and ask her
Tel: + 49 (0)30 25491 547
Fax: + 49 (0)30 25491 342
Raum: D 120
Email: [email protected]

Gisela Hirschmann

Maybe she'll be here. I dont know

The WZB
The Social Science Research Center Berlin conducts basic research with a focus on problems of modern societies in a globalized world

Reichpietschufer 50
D-10785 Berlin-Tiergarten
Germany
Phone: +49 - 30 - 25491 - 0
Fax: +49 - 30 - 25491 - 684
E-mail: [email protected]

Ah, this may provide a clue. I saw these threads asking about "a.o." and I agree with Setanta -- it obviously means "among others." That's not standard English, but it reminded me of the common German abbreviation u.a., which means unter anderen ("among others" -- it can also mean und andere ("and others") -- context is everything). So this may be an instance where a German author invents an English equivalent for a familiar German abbreviation.

There's no standard abbreviation in English for "among others." As pointed out on one of the other threads, the closest is the Latin phrase inter alia, which, thankfully, rarely appears outside of the world of jurisprudence.

I'm glad that's cleared up, because this is the fourth or fifth occurance of this question--good lookin' out Joe. Inter aliais used in academic contexts, too, as for example an historian noting an unresolved controversy might list a few of the "big" names in contemporary academic history as inter alia supporters of one particular point of view.

Au contraire, I use it all the time.

Which is a lot.

And haggis is eaten about as frequently too.

HA ha hahhhH hAh

Joe(that killed me)Nation

Well done joe although i dissagree with your assetion that it is "obviouse".
In fact I think its quite obscure.

What has become obviouse is that a university in China is using this text as a learning aid to teach English. Hopefully the students are being told not to accept this authors writing as official Australian government policy.