RELIGION & INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT

Does religion increase or decrease the chances of international conflict?

Does religion increase or decrease the chances of international conflict?

Introduction

From the Crusades of the middle ages to the religious terrorism of today, the influence of religion has been a powerful one on the pages of political history, and this influence is felt ever more strongly in modern politics, with religious actors and organization influencing politics within and across nations (Philpott 2002, p66). Even those scholars who previously predicted the decline of religion and the rise of secularism acknowledge that the world today "is as furiously religious as it ever was, and in some places more so than ever" (Berger 1999, p. 2). As the influence of the world's religions continue to grow and as religious conflicts rage on in many countries, understanding how religion affects the political world becomes an increasingly important venture.

The vast majority of people in the world profess a strong commitment to some spiritual faith (Gill 2001, p117), with the World Value Survey placing the number of respondents who believe in some supernatural deity at over 75%. Literally billions of people around the world structure their lives and their daily routines around religious practices and observances (Appleby 2000, p34). And, by some accounts, over half of all contemporary conflicts have a significant religious dimension (Otis 2004, p78). Despite these facts, religion as a causal variable has generally been neglected by international relations scholars.

In spite of this neglect, many scholars persist in believing, in a very general sense, that religious beliefs can have a significant impact on worldviews and choices (Geertz 2003, p56). Max Weber argued that individuals "undoubtedly act on the basis of their beliefs and ideas, and the ways in which they conduct themselves follow from the religious and political conceptions to which they subscribe" (Haynes 2000, p. 90).

This discrepancy remains because scholars do not fully understand the effects of religion on politics and how these effects may vary with differences in religious beliefs (Esposito & M. Watson, 2000, p87) . Given the increasing influence of religion, and the fact that many international actors today claim their choices are made according to religious motivations, a systematic examination of the influence of religious beliefs on politics is long overdue. The project that follows is one contribution to a broader research agenda on religion and its increase or decrease on international conflict.

Discussion

“Religion” as an explanatory concept is far too broad to provide meaningful insight in a systematic way. We have to understand more about the microfoundations of religion in order to know if it is useful for explaining phenomena in international relations. One significant problem is that religion is rarely understood or studied in a consistent way (Beyer 2003, p141) and certainly not in a rigorous way that lends itself to the generation of good political science research.

Looking back through history, there are many examples of religion inspiring individuals and movements. One example is Joan of Arc, who believed God was helping lead ...