Content uploaded by Jonathan Fox
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Jonathan Fox on Sep 11, 2017
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Bringing Religion into International Relations
Abstract and Figures
This book has several main themes and arguments. International Relations has been westerncentric, which has contributed to its ignoring religion; while religion is not the main driving force behind IR, international politics cannot be understood without taking religion into account; the role of religion is related to the fact that IR has evolved to become more than just interstate relations and now included elements of domestic politics. The book proceeds in three stages. First, it looks at why religion was ignored by IR theory and theorists. Second, it examines the multiple ways religion influences IR, including through religious legitimacy and the many ways domestic religious issues can cross borders. In this discussion a number of topics including but not limited to international intervention, international organizations, religious fundamentalism, political Islam, Samuel Huntington's 'clash of civilizations' theory, and terrorism are addressed. Third, these factors are examined empirically using both quantitative and case study methodology.
Figures - uploaded by Jonathan Fox
Author content
All figure content in this area was uploaded by Jonathan Fox
Content may be subject to copyright.
... Jews claim Jerusalem as their eternal capital and especially the Temple Mount that is currently occupied by the Al-Aqsa Mosque and it is believed that it is the location from which Mohamed rose to heaven and received instructions regarding the Muslim prayers. Finally, many of the events in the Christian Bible occurred in Jerusalem (Fox & Sandler, 2004). In the case of Jerusalem, the religious significance of the city has also considerable political significance in that it has become tied up in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. ...
... Actually, on one side, this explains why the kin groups, especially those who living across the border and control their states government, influence the internationalization of domestic (religious) conflicts. For example, the rebellion by Muslims in the Kashmiri province of India has contributed to sporadic military conflict between neighboring Pakistan, which is religiously and ethnically similar to the population in the province (Fox & Sandler, 2004). On other side, this also explains why states tend to intervene most often on behalf of groups religiously similar to them, or moreover, why states of similar religions are lees likely to go to war with each other (Henderson, 1998). ...
... Religious fundamentalism is perhaps the most current aspect of bringing religion into international relations in the past three decades. Actually, religious fundamentalism is becoming an increasingly important factor in both domestic and international politics in most parts of the world (Fox & Sandler, 2004). In this regard it is no doubt that religiously motivated terrorism has an increasingly global agenda. ...
Тhe New World Order cannot be understood without accounting for theroleand the impact of religion and religious organizations. Actually, compared to theperioduntil the end of the Cold War, much more attention is paid to the religion andnationalismissues today. From security point of view one of the reasons for such a situationis basedon the growing number and internationalisation of the religious issues andconflictsaround the world. This paper analyses why and how local religious conflicts arebecomingan international issue. It is clear that internationalization of domestic conflicts isnotunique to religious conflicts. However, religious conflicts are among those that havebeeninternationalized in past 30-years. In security aspect, the internationalizationprocessofthese conflicts is very important because of its serious impact on the conflict resolutionorescalation dynamics as well.
... Jonathan Fox and Shmuel Sandler's book argue that while religion is not the driving force in world politics, international relations cannot be understood without taking religion into account, and its impact should not be underestimated. Religious legitimacy influences policymakers and their constituents; local religious phenomena, especially religious conflicts, cross borders; many transnational issues like human rights and population control have religious components (Fox and Sandler, 2004). Scott Thomas argues that a major paradigm shift in international relations theory is needed to explain the global resurgence of religion and its effects on key concepts and theories (Thomas, 2005). ...
Religion has a quantifiable role in shaping Foreign Policies and failing to acknowledge this would undermine the scope and effectivity of the discipline of IR. This study attempts to put Religion as an important factor in the decision-making process, which defines and orients a state's foreign policy. This paper aims to inspect, establish, and analyze the nature of the role of religion in foreign policy decision-making. A significant body of scholarship has questioned the exclusion of religion from the discipline of International Relations and foreign policy decision-making by traditional paradigms. This study aims to understand and address to what degree does religion affect International Relations? What does religion's role in triggering and escalating conflict signify? Therefore, this is a qualitative interpretative study that uses the methodology of discourse analysis. Content analysis of both sources was conducted to understand the meanings. It presents a framework that would lay the groundwork for policymakers and analysts to qualify and quantify the role of religion in foreign policy decision-making.
The diplomacy of the Holy See (the Vatican) is among the most puzzling subjects in post-Westphalian history. While the entity itself lacks the capacity to exercise its sovereign power through coercion, the durability and prevalence of the Roman Catholic Church have given the Holy See influence over great power politics and allowed it to shape the international relations through active diplomacy in humanitarianism, peacekeeping, conflict resolution, and global governance, particularly within the framework of the United Nations. With a vast number of followers, properties, and spiritual principles to defend without any standing army, the diplomacy of the Holy See has experienced a constant struggle between morality and realist politics, and it is important to better understand what has guided these difficult decisions. This study will tackle the question by surveying the issue of divided nations, which are often torn apart by difficult circumstances such as civil wars, ethnic conflicts, ideological divisions, and great power politics. Taiwan and China represent a particularly complicated challenge for the Holy See. A closer look at their history from 1947 until today can help decode the fundamental principles and methods of the Holy See’s diplomacy and provide valuable insights into the theories of international relations.
Since its independence in 1991, the Georgian Orthodox Church has become an integral part of both the country and Georgian identity in Georgia. It is considered the most trusted institution in the country according to opinion polls today and many experts attributes this to the fact that the Georgian Orthodox Church has assumed the role of the protector of Georgian national identity throughout different periods in history
It has long been understood that there is something peculiar, even paradoxical, about conservatism in America. For most Europeans who came to America, the whole purpose of their difficult and disruptive journey to the New World was not to conserve European institutions but to leave them behind and to create something new, often an entirely new life, and even a new identity, for themselves. Conservatives have been divided into: (1) those who are most concerned about economic or fiscal issues, that is, pro-business or “free-enterprise” conservatives; (2) those most concerned with religious or social issues, that is, pro-church or “traditional-values” conservatives; and (3) those most concerned with national-security or defense issues, that is, pro-military or “patriotic” conservatives. For a while, especially during the 1980s, it may have seemed that these three kinds of conservatives were natural allies, that they had an “elective affinity” for each other, and that there was no significant contradiction between them. In a pattern similar to that of economic conservatism, in Europe an established state church shaped religious and moral conditions. In America, particularly after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, religious and moral conditions were instead shaped by the separation of church and state and even by religious pluralism. Following the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump, many scholars have recognised the crucial role of Christian evangelical support for his triumphed victor. Here, we realize there is an interesting relation between faith and politics in the American voting system. the underlying arguments that we wish to portray in this article is: 1) that Trump facilitated more religious conservatives through a socially constructed approach, and 2) that this approach of conservatism has further led to the decline of U.S. social and political legitimacy due to the massive social issues that happened.
We analyze the effect of state visits by the Catholic pope on human rights in the host country to understand how a small theocracy like the Vatican can exert disproportionate political influence in international politics. Our theory of the strategic interaction between the Catholic Church and host governments describes how the pope’s use of conditional approval and criticism incentivizes governments to refrain from human rights violations. Drawing on a new dataset of papal state visits outside Italy and a novel identification strategy, we test for the first time whether governments react in anticipation of a papal visit by improving their human rights protection. Our empirical analysis offers robust evidence for this causal effect, which is supported by qualitative evidence.
