Religious Moderation in Prabowo Subianto’s Speech at the 2025 U.N General Assembly: Indonesia’s Peace Diplomacy in Global Conflicts

Abstract

Religious moderation has been widely discussed in Indonesia’s domestic context, yet its strategic deployment in diplomatic rhetoric remains underexplored, particularly in presidential-level statements within multilateral forums. This study addresses that gap by examining how Prabowo Subianto articulates moderation principles in his 2025 United Nations General Assembly address and how these values function as instruments of peace diplomacy. Using a qualitative descriptive–analytical design, the study employs a deductive content analysis of the official speech transcript, supported by scholarly works and international media reports. The findings identify four thematic clusters—religious moderation, peace diplomacy, humanitarian concern, and global commitment—each embedded with the values of tawassuṭ (middle path), tasāmuḥ (tolerance), tawāzun (balance), and iʻtidāl (justice). The speech frames the Israel–Palestine conflict through a balanced narrative that simultaneously endorses Palestinian statehood, recognizes Israeli security concerns, and condemns violence against civilians. Theoretically, the study demonstrates how religious values can be operationalized as normative resources in international relations, advancing scholarly debates on faith-based diplomacy and leadership communication. Practically, it shows how moderate narratives enhance Indonesia's credibility as a bridge-building, humanitarian-oriented actor in global politics. While limited to a single case, the findings open avenues for comparative research on the rhetorical construction of moderation across leaders and regions using larger UN speech corpora.