Research On Islamic Elements In Indonesia’s Foreign Policy

Religion was one of the longest and most universal cultural phenomenon in the history of human civilization. Associated with politics naturally, It had profound theory and opening charm. It also had a far-reaching influence on human material life and spiritual world, while made a deep mark on the history of mankind whatever it referred to any particular generation or living area. The analysis of Islamic religion’s influence on Indonesian foreign policy, including the characteristics, content and features of this influence, was based on historical facts and time sequence, aiming at reviewing the influence of Islam on the development and change of the Indonesian foreign policy in different historical stages and grasping the whole Islamic factors in Indonesian foreign policy. Analysis of Islamic Factor in foreign policy under authoritarian period of the Sukarno administration helped to understand how the Islam factors in Indonesian politics rise and fall, while the performance, characteristics and existing problems of Indonesian foreign policy were also discussed at the same time. Analysis of Islamic factors of the Suharto period show us how Islam factors was forced into government foreign policy as a political tool, how the later so-called "De-politicization" happened, what characteristics "De-politicization" had manifested and what kind of consequences "De-politicization" had caused. Through the interpretation of Islamic factors’ influence on foreign policy in Islamic democracy political reform period, this article found that in the background of the Indonesian national political change and social transformation, the status and role of the Islamic factors in Indonesia’s foreign policy had some new characteristics different from the Islam factors in the previous period.