Politics In A Religious World

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Description

This book discusses the lack of religious understanding in US foreign policy, examining why the US chooses to avoid the religious aspects of international affairs. Politics in a Religious World examines why US diplomacy often misunderstands, if not ignores, the role of religion in international conflicts.

After the Cold War, it became evident that religion was a key factor in many conflicts, including Bosnia, Rwanda, and Afghanistan. However, the US failed to correctly appreciate this role, for example predicting the failure of the Iranian theocrats in 1979. Today, most of the security and foreign relations challenges faced by the US are infused with religious factors, from its relations with Iran to the Iraq war and jihadist terrorists.

Religion, however, can also play a transnational role when it comes to human rights, conflict resolution, and political mobilization. Written by an expert in the field, the book analyzes why the US deliberately avoids the religious dimension of international affairs and proposes a comprehensive approach to a religiously literate US foreign policy.

Politics in a Religious World addresses a needed area and will appeal to anyone studying US foreign policy as well as the interaction of religion and international affairs. Review: The U.S. foreign policy establishment continues to assume, against decades of evidence to the contrary, that religion operates according to the same logic as secular forms of power.

Eric Patterson is the rare observer who combines a sophisticated understanding of religion's complex and contradictory roles in international politics with an insider's knowledge of U.S. diplomatic and military thinking. His balanced but blunt critique of the so-called realism that keeps many of our policymakers comfortable in their ignorance of religion could not be more timely. - R.Scott Appleby, University of Notre Dame, Co-Chair, Chicago Council on Global Affairs Task Force on Religion and U.S.

Foreign Policy.