ABSTRACT
Indonesia is by any measure a large and complex nation, and never more so than at present as it struggles to complete its transition to democracy after four decades of authoritarian rule. The world’s fourth most populous nation, the largest Muslim society in the world and now its third-largest democracy, Indonesia’s complexity comes from both its geography and history. It is a nation made up of 13,000 islands with more than 300 ethnic and linguistic groups, a new nation finding its way, an amalgam of disparate elements brought together by the expedient logic of colonialism.
