Understanding Indonesia: Revealing the Mysteries of Asia’s Inscrutable Giant

Date: 

Saturday, November 21, 2015, 9:00am to 5:30pm

Location: 

Wiener Auditorium, Taubman Bldg. 79 JFK St. Cambridge, MA 02138

The Harvard Kennedy School Indonesia Program and the Harvard Asia Center, with support from The Australian National University’s Indonesia Project, are hosting their first national conference on Indonesia, “Understanding Indonesia: Revealing the Mysteries of Asia’s Inscrutable Giant.” Although Indonesia is a giant of Asia, it has largely escaped the attention of U.S. policy makers, academics, and the public at large.  With a population of 250 million, it is the fourth most populous country in the world. It is the largest democratic country with a Muslim-majority population. With a trillion-dollar economy, it is a member of the G20 countries.  In the last four decades, among the G20 countries, only China has an average annual growth higher than Indonesia.  The conference objective is to better inform academics, policymakers, business communities, and the general public in the U.S. about Indonesia to enhance relations between the two countries.   The long-term goal of this activity is to allow a large cross-section of Americans to play a role in, and at the same time, to benefit from Indonesia’s development.  Leading specialists on Indonesian economics, politics, culture, and society, together with two former Indonesian ministers and the current Indonesian ambassador to the United States, will speak at the conference. 

Recap of the event