ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at religions involvement in international conflict and cooperation. It examines the ambivalence of religion in this respect, that is, it can be central to both conflicts and attempts at cooperation, including conflict resolution and peacemaking, and post-conflict peacebuilding. The chapter turns to the issue of religions involvement in inter-civilisational conflict and cooperation, especially after 9/11. The Israel/Palestinians issue highlights that inter-group conflicts can be framed in religious terms even when the key issue is not religious but territorial. The three religions of the book Christianity, Islam and Judaism share a broadly similar set of theological and spiritual values and this can potentially underpin ability to provide positive inter-faith contributions to conflict resolution, peacebuilding and, more generally, interfaith cooperation. The Israel-based, US academic Jonathan Fox examines the influence of both religion and Samuel Huntingtons concept of civilisations on what he identifies as ethnic conflict using well-developed data plus data on collected independently religion and civilisations.
