ABSTRACT
Interreligious dialogue has developed into an increasingly significant dimension of international politics. The chapter presents two dimensions of this process: (a) it reconstructs the developments of three organizations that have an international agenda and are explicitly propagating interreligious dialogue—the World’s Parliament of Religions, the World Conference on Religion and Peace, and the United Religions Initiative; and (b) it analyses the integration of the notions of ‘dialogue’ and ‘harmony’ into the official resolutions of the United Nations’ General Assembly (UN-GA) and discusses their significance for the religion-discourse within the United Nations. On this basis, the chapter develops a two-directional argument. On the one hand, it will substantiate the proposition that interreligious dialogue has developed into a central dimension of international politics. On the other, it will make the point that the international segment of interreligious dialogue activities is strongly influenced by international relations.
