Defending the Faith? Assessing the Impact of State Religious Exclusivity on Territorial MID Initiation

Abstract

Interstate conflicts involving religion are commonly argued to be more severe and more protracted than other forms of conflict. Although various arguments have sought to explain religion's apparent contributions to global violence, few consider the foreign policy goals over which religious actors actually fight. This article does so by examining whether religiously-exclusive states tend to militarize interstate territorial disputes (MIDs) over issues of strategic material or identity salience. Insofar as religiously-exclusive states seek to “defend the faith” against internal and external challengers, identity-salient disputes should be a particularly attractive target for militarization. We however find the opposite. Although religiously-exclusive states do initiate territorial MIDs more frequently than their secular counterparts, they are significantly more likely to do so owing to disputed territories' strategic rather than symbolic value. These results challenge accepted wisdom regarding religion's influence on international conflict and suggest critical new avenues for research.

Conflict settlement and identity in territorial claims

“…The questions of conflict management and mediation of ethnic or religious disputes have often centered upon the ability of states to divide the territory in question in such a way that satisfies disputants concerned with questions of morality or justice. Much of the difficulty with partition derives not just from the importance of avoiding future ethnic conflict and danger to those placed in the “other” group's state, but also from the perceptions of the territory under dispute as “indivisible” (Goddard, 2006; Hassner, 2003; Zellman & Fox, 2020). Unlike economic concerns, where equitable agreements and compromises can be reached by dividing whatever is disputed between the disputants, disputes over ethnicity or religion cannot be so easily divided.…”

What is religious freedom and who has it?

“…Gurr, 1993Gurr, , 2000; empirical studies show that states with more RF engage in less international conflict and experience less domestic conflict (e.g. Deitch, 2020;Zellman and Fox, 2020).…”

Is governmental and societal discrimination against Muslim minorities behind foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq?

“… 8 For details on how the RASM dataset was collected and variable construction see Akbaba & Fox (2011), Fox, Finke & Mataic (2018), and the Religion and State project website at www.religionandstate.org. For a broader theoretical discussion of the impact and nature of these discrimination variables see Deitch (2020), Fox (2020), and Zellman & Fox (2020). …”

“…org. For a broader theoretical discussion of the impact and nature of these discrimination variables seeDeitch (2020),Fox (2020), andZellman & Fox (2020).Mishali-Ram & Fox…”