ABSTRACT
The religionists argue that IR is blind to religion and that this is caused by the dominance of the secularist assumptions of the Westphalian system. IR's secularism is expressed in the view that the state is the central actor, that power is seen as the national interest of the state and that the domestic domain is therefore seen as irrelevant for the analysis of IB. While each of these explanations stands alone, they are strengthened by a fourth point, which is that IR identifies the Westphalian system as the moment when the influence of religion declined. The religionists criticize this view as biased since it leads to the neglect of religious (f)actors. They propose an alternative view called neosecularization theory. This means that secularization is seen as a change of the institutional place of religion and not so much as a decline of the role of religion in the public domain.
