ABSTRACT
With the horrific events of September 11 2001, religion is back in the forefront of International Relations (IR). In spite of incidents in the real world of politics, religion failed to take a prominent role in scientific research in the modern era. Religion is sometimes referred to as the “overlooked dimension,”1 while Andreas Hasenclever and Volker Rittberger point to “little systematic research on the impact of religious faith on the course of conflicts,”2 and Pavlos Hatzopoulos and Fabio Petito observe that a rejection of religion “seems to be inscribed in the genetic code of the discipline of IR.”3 However, religion today is in return from “exile”4 and represents a thriving area of research in IR. Studies are proliferating quickly in the new millennium; approaches run the gamut from theoretical essays through case studies to aggregate data analysis.5 Religion is once again understood to be important to the study of IR, and one scholar even calls for an “international political theology.”6
