ABSTRACT
The religious sensitivity of the political decision makers of the world's greatest power seems an unmistakable factor in its foreign policy. The most religious people are to be found among the Jehovah's Witnesses, historically black Protestants, Mormons and Evangelical Protestants. The influence of religion on contemporary world politics has been recognized and studied from as early as the 1990s, but the vast majority of research on this subject has only appeared since 11 September 2001. The complicated international reality of the role of religion is best described by the phrase 'the ambivalence of the sacred'. The religiosity of Americans has an impact on the country's political landscape. It is said that Americans could elect almost anyone except an atheist. A religion's significance in international relations relates to the strength of its influence, the number of its adherents'—and demographic trends in this respect—internal divisions and geographical coverage.
