Central-Eastern European (CEE) historical and cultural experiences can constitute an important contribution to the Global IR. Religion plays a special role here (we discuss the phenomena of “ethnicization of religion” and “sacralization of ethnicity”), which still does not find an adequate place in Western IR. Using data provided by the Institute of Catholic Church Statistics and the National Electoral Commission, we analyze the connections between Poles’ religiosity and voting in the Sejm elections from 2007 to 2015. We use cartographic and statistical methods for this purpose. As a result, there is a visible strengthening of political polarization in Poland, based largely on viewpoint issues, especially those related to the approach to religion. Therefore: 1. religion still “matters” for IR because it significantly influences political choices, especially in CEE, including Poland; 2. the concept of Global IR should be expanded to include research on religion, as it remains a relevant factor for this concept – it contributes significantly to “non-Western” theorizing on IR, e.g., in the CEE region; 3. perhaps the postsecular approach to studying international reality developed within Western IR could find its application in the concept of Global IR, which has a great chance of contributing to the dissemination of a new, postsecular identity of the discipline. It is worth using multidisciplinary research, as demonstrated in this article.
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