ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the place of Islam in Indonesian foreign policy from the formative years of the Republic until the demise of Sukarno’s rule in 1966. In doing so, the role of the Islamic factor is examined in terms of three crucial phases in Indonesian domestic developments that affected the course of foreign policy: the period of state formation, parliamentary democracy, and the Guided Democracy. By examining the course of Indonesian foreign policy during the three periods, this chapter seeks to explain why Islam was conspicuously absent in foreign policy considerations. It also demonstrates how, from the very beginning, Indonesian foreign policy has been defined not by religious considerations, but by the overriding domestic concerns of successive governments to preserve national unity, secure international legality, attain regime legitimacy and security, and strengthen domestic political ascendancy.