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 and peacebuilding, locally and globally? 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 11th, 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. The course will also discuss the explicit integration of the imperative to engage religious communities and promote religious freedom into explicit strategies of American foreign policy and combating violent extremism at home. These issues will be discussed through a consideration of the history of orientalism and Islamophobia as well as the legacy of colonialism.