God isn’t dead: religion, nuclear norms, and the Middle East

Abstract

ABSTRACT Religion is understudied as a variable in nuclear-proliferation and nuclear-deterrence policies. This article issues a call to scholars, activists, and practitioners to improve knowledge and strategic intelligence about the connection between religion and nuclear weapons. Such a research program is necessary to fill gaps in the scholarly literature on nuclear norms and nuclear decision making. It is also policy relevant. This is especially true in the Middle East, where all states profess to want a nuclear-weapon-free region and where religion is often used to legitimize political authority and decision making. Efforts to create in the Middle East a zone free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction (a Middle East Zone) are currently hamstrung by conventional diplomatic concerns over sequencing, monitoring, and the security dilemma. This article posits that interfaith dialogue—one possible manifestation of a reinvigorated research program on religion and nuclear weapons—could both enhance our knowledge of how religious belief influences nuclear decision making and stimulate progress on achieving a Middle East Zone by reframing discourse on such a zone in terms of Abrahamic identity. The proposition is deductive and rooted in constructivist theories of change. It is not idealistic: a constructivist approach and a role for religion does not necessarily indicate pacifism, nor does it require unanimous buy-in for a religious normative order to prevail.