Religion in International and Global Relations

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

What is the relation between religion and conflict in international and global relations? What is the relation between religion, violence, and the practices of peacebuilding, locally and globally? How can we understand the role of religion in diplomacy? Why do we need to think about religion's role in Western colonialism, orientalism, and Islamohobia (or racialized anti-Muslim oppression) in order to understand religion in contemporary international affairs? What does religion have to do with political ideology? The so-called resurgence of religion to global politics, conventionally dating back to the Iranian Revolution of 1979, challenged the secularist myopia that informed policy makers and theorists of international relations, but it took the events of September 11, 2001 to fully catalyze a process of rethinking the role of religion, on both the levels of theory and practice, within the contexts of international relations. Both theorists and practitioners in the arenas of international relations are trying to decipher how to theorize religion into the existing explanatory paradigms of realism, liberalism, and constructivism. The course will examine these conversations, dating back to Westphalia of 1648 and the historical role of religion in the construction of the international system of nation-states. Driven by case studies and avoiding simplistic accounts of religious traditions, the course will introduce the students to religion and international relation theory, the practices of peacebuilding, diplomacy, development, and the study of ethnonationalism.