Global Religions and International Relations: A Diplomatic Perspective

A Diplomatic Perspective

P. Ferrara

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781137407191
• eBook ISBN:
  9781137400826
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy
• Index: Social Sciences

With a religious re-emergence in international relations, this book provides an introduction to the role religions play within the global political arena. Culled from theoretical, practical, and real-world experiences, Ferrara explains the role religion now plays in global affairs on diplomatic and political levels.

Part I

A Theoretical Overview

1

Religion and World Politics

Abstract: Despite the monumental bibliography on religions and international relations, there is a good deal of confusion and theoretical uncertainty.

One way of contributing to the cause of clarity is by trying to be more accurate about the various characterizations of the connection between religions and world politics. In this domain we distinguish at least the following dimensions:

religions and inter-state relations;

religions and internationalism;

religions and transnationalism;

religions and globalism.

I refer to those dimensions through my own interpretation on their defining arguments. Inter-state relations focus on foreign policy; internationalism focuses on the legitimacy of international bodies and international democracy; transnationalism focuses on collective identity; finally, globalism focuses on the agenda of world politics.

Keywords: collective identities; “deterritorialization” of religions; “imagined communities”

Ferrara, Pasquale. Global Religions and International Relations: A Diplomatic Perspective. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. DOI: 10.1057/9781137400826.0005.

There was a time when, in the international relations of theory and practice, religion was considered almost irrelevant or, worse, dangerous. Privatized in the internal forum, religion was also supposed to be banned in world politics. Religion was instinctively conceived, even in the framework of international relations (as a result of the tragic “religion wars”—a rather misleading definition, as we have seen above—that have haunted the European and Mediterranean history), as a source of conflicts and not as a political resource for peaceful coexistence.

Moreover, for a long time religion has been considered as an epiphenomenon, in accordance with the realist approach to international relations. Classical realists typically insist that only material forces (such as economic development, military strength, geopolitical factors) have a “real” influence on the structure of international relations: they are “causal variables”.

Ironically, prominent thinkers of international relations, who had made a matter of principle opposing Marxist theory in its “Soviet” incarnation in international relations, seemed to embrace one central assumption of historical materialism: culture, ideas and religion are thought to be “superstructures” emanating from the social-economic structure.

That time is over. Today, we can talk of an “industry” of religion and international relations (and even International Political Theology¹). Post-secularism has made its way into the post-modern world.

One might even get the impression of having fallen to the opposite extreme. Since the publication of the works of Gilles Kepel² and José Casanova³ many candles have burned in the theoretical aisles of the huge cathedral of internationalized and even globalized religions. In traditional international relations theory, we were haunted by the ignorance of the Holy; whereas a recent outlook provided by Olivier Roy⁴ is all about Holy Ignorance.

Despite the monumental bibliography on the subject, however, there is a good deal of confusion and theoretical uncertainty. One central question is very seldom clarified; is it religion that went international or rather the international relations theory and practice that became more sensitive to religions?

Now, it is not my intention to initiate a new extra “meta-debate”. What I’ll try to do is to offer some fragmented and preliminary reflections that can in principle combine the need for more theoretical clarity with some possible policy implications. One way of contributing to the cause of clarity is by trying to be more accurate about the various characterizations of the connection between religions and world politics.

In my opinion, it is this particular relation—between religions and world politics—that best describes the new role of religious factors in the international arena. I will make the case that there is a role for religions to play in the international realm that goes beyond pure “Westphalian” and state-centered categories, without characterizing religions as mere “global faith-based NGOs”. Religions have a say in world politics but they cannot be portrayed reductively as lobbies or constituencies. They operate in a public sphere, which doesn’t overlap completely with the international political sphere.

Another important marker that I propose is the alternative between an “ontological” approach to religion as a general “category of the spirit” and concrete religions as a vast phenomenology of human religious needs. It is the plural form, “religions”, that is relevant for world politics.

Within this larger scheme we can then distinguish at least the following dimensions:

religions and inter-state relations;

religions and internationalism;

religions and transnationalism; and

religions and globalism.

I will refer to those dimensions through my own interpretation on their defining arguments. Inter-state relations focus on foreign policy; internationalism focuses on the legitimacy of international bodies and international democracy; transnationalism focuses on collective identity; finally, globalism focuses on the agenda of world politics (see Table 1.1).

Religions and inter-state relations

Religion from the inter-state point of view is religion inside a box. It is a way of combining religion and nationalism. It is a matter of governments rather than peoples. It can take very different forms with very different outcomes: two heterogeneous cases are, for instance, the Islamic revolution in Iran and the Russian Orthodox Church after the fall of the Berlin Wall (and to a certain extent even before).

TABLE 1.1 Religions beyond borders: type of relations and area of influence

Political Islamism is often articulated as a national political factor. Strictly speaking, the idea of a growing relevance of political Islamism should be dealt with more as a matter of comparative politics than a specific subject of international analysis.

If we adopt the perspective of the level of analysis in international relation theory, religion and inter-state relations is a subject that Kenneth Waltz⁵ will perhaps include in his “second image”, that is, the motivations of state behavior in the international arena. As such, religion could be considered relevant as one fundamental driver of foreign policy rather than genuine international politics.

I will make the case that there is a role for religions to play in the international realm that goes beyond pure “Westphalian” and state-centered categories. I maintain that only internationalism, transnationalism and globalism are the relevant dimensions for an international relations theory and practice that would grasp at the appropriate level of analysis the role and the place of religions in world politics.

Religions and internationalism

As far as internationalism is concerned, what is interesting is the relation between religions and the concept (and practice) of international democracy. There are many ways to conceptualize in political terms the relatively new notion of “international democracy”.

The one I will refer to here has to do with procedures and decision-making mechanisms of the “international community”, understood as a web of international organizations both of inter-governmental nature and supra-national character. In this version, international democracy refers to the principle of inclusion and to fair and politically justified rights and “votes” of governments in international bodies.

In dealing with that notion of international democracy, I am basically concerned with some foundational aspects of the interna...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Introduction
• Part I  A Theoretical Overview
• Part II  Issues and Applications
• Index