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Religion In International Relations Research Paper

1014 Words5 Pages

A historical overview of the impact of religion in International Relations
Why does Religion matter in theorizing IR?

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the role that religion as an important factor in people’s lives and hence, states, can play in the theoretical framework of conceptualization of International Relations. While for a long time the international relations theory was dominated by the secular Westphalian school of thought, scholars argue that a global revitalization of religion called for a rethinking of the secular dimension of international relations theory and the need for incorporating religion as a part of this theory in order to understand certain phenomena in international issues emerged.

Introduction

“Three …show more content…

Than, it goes on to emphasize the importance of religion in IR perspectives and describes certain analytical frameworks scholars have proposed as a way to incorporate religion in IR. The paper concludes by highlighting the fact that, even though scholars of international relations started to give attention to the role of religion in international relations, there is still work to be done in order to form a clear conceptual model on how religion should be studied analytically in the paradigms of IR. Many scholars criticize the fact that religion is not studied properly in IR, but they fail to propose concrete analytical models on how this study can be …show more content…

Realists in international politics emphasize the fact that international arena has been characterized by subsequent wars, despite the rise of democracies or the progress in science and technology. There are four concepts which realism as an approach employs to explain international politics, mainly: anarchy, states as the central actors, states as unitary actors and states as rational actors. Being a situation with no central ruler, anarchy is used by realists to define international political arena. According to realism approach, anarchy leads international politics towards conflict (Danieri, 2012, pg. 63). In realism approach, states are seen as central actors in international politics and that the international organization of the todays world is a reflection of the interest of states. According to this paradigm, international politics is nothing more than ‘politics between the states’ (Danieri, 2012, pg. 63). Also, in the realist paradigm, states are seen as ‘single coherent entities’ and they also believe that the behavior of states is rational. Meaning that states calculate their decisions before employing them (Danieri, 2012,

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