Finding Religion: A Guide for the Perplexed (Policy-maker)

Abstract

Given contemporary news headlines, it seems axiomatic to proclaim, as Peter Berger did a decade ago, that “the world today, with some exceptions, is as furiously religious as ever, and in some places, more so than ever.” Nor is there much controversy over the conclusions of Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris that “the expanding gap between the sacred and the secular societies around the globe will have important consequences for world politics, raising the role of religion on the international agenda.” This was not the case so long ago. As Jonathan Fox noted in 2001—on the eve of the September 11 attacks—“the influence of religion has received comparatively little attention in international relations.” Pavlos Hatzopoulos and Fabio Petito used even stronger language to argue, “The rejection of religion . . . seems to be inscribed in the genetic code of the discipline” of international relations, and that “politics with reference to religion became the ultimate threat to order, security and civility, and could not inhabit both the practices of international relations and, subsequently, the discipline of International Relations.”