The fuzzy place of interreligious dialogue in the international community’s intercultural dialogue efforts

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper aims to shed light on the diverse role and place attributed to interreligious dialogue in the intercultural dialogue initiatives advanced by a wealth of international organisations over the last 20 years. It claims that the position of interreligious dialogue within these broader international efforts can be either blended, disjunct, autonomous or neglected, and that this variation primarily depends on how each organisation has dealt with both the position of the West-Islam juxtaposition in the definition and implementation of its intercultural dialogue agenda, and on its specific understanding of the relation between the concepts of culture and religion. Analysing the discourse, governance and policy dimensions of a wealth of such international organisations’ initiatives, this paper provides a typology of existing approaches to interreligious dialogue which will further contribute exposing the underlying rationale behind intercultural dialogue efforts in international politics and untangling the fuzziness around this concept.