Religious Tolerance in the Foreign Policy of Indonesia: Soft Power, Religious Diplomacy and Normative Export

This article explores how Indonesia has transformed its domestic experience of religious tolerance and of moderate Islam into a resource of foreign policy. It analyses the Bali Democracy Forum, the Bogor Message, the Religion of Twenty forum and the transnational activities of Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, and sets out through them the principal mechanisms of Indonesian religious diplomacy. The article argues that Indonesia does not export a ready-made political model to other Muslim countries; rather it brings into the international arena a normative experience centred upon the compatibility of Islam, democracy, national statehood and religious diversity. The study conceptualizes this process as religious soft power and as normative export. (CC