ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces students to the topic of religion and international relations. The chapter covers three general issues. First, it discusses why the field of international relations has been slow to recognize the importance of religion until recently. Specifically, we will look at how the international system evolved in a highly secular fashion after the great wars of religion in the seventeenth century and how these secularizing events were expressed in the academic study of international relations in the form of the secularization thesis – the idea that religion is becoming less important in the world. As it turned out, however, the secularization thesis proved to be entirely incorrect. Religion was not becoming a dormant force in the world as predicted by the proponents of secularization; it was never completely divorced for global politics. The second part of this chapter examines the reasons behind religion’s resurgence in the second half of the twentieth century and surveys specific manifestations of religion’s renewed impact on international relations. Finally, we will look at five ways in which religion helps shape modern world politics: as a source of international norms, a source of foreign policy, a source of Nationalism, a source of violence and a source of peace. This section also introduces the important concept of the ‘ambivalence of the sacred’ – the idea that religion’s role in international relations is not one-dimensional but has been used as both a motive for war and an instrument of peace. Throughout this chapter, students will become familiarized with important concepts like the global resurgence of religion, religious fundamentalism, religious terrorism and religious peacebuilding.
