Religion and American foreign policy in the context of the postsecular turn in world politics and the social sciences

Abstract

| Despite longstanding research on religion and American politics, there has been little sustained attention to the relationship between religion and American foreign policy. This state of affairs is changing and markedly so. The past few years have witnessed an ever-growing stream of books across disciplines and perspectives seeking to understand and explain why, when and how religious individuals, organizations, ideas, identities and practices matter (or ought to matter) to INTERNATIONAL POLITICS REVIEWS | IPR VOLUME 1 | SEPTEMBER 2013 | 11America's international conduct across time and issues. Why this sudden change? This review article contextualizes and relates this literature to the wider postsecular turn in the social world and the social sciences. It argues that research on religion and American policy has much to gain from a more consistent dialogue and engagement with the broader postsecular literature in international relations, and vice versa. The article concludes by highlighting seven promising avenues for further theoretical reflection and empirical research.

Religious Regulation as Foreign Policy: Morocco's Islamic Diplomacy in West Africa

“…When comparative politics scholars have analyzed religious regulation, they have concentrated on domestic policy (Gill 1998; 2008; Fox 2008; Fox and Tabory 2008; Driessen 2010; Hibbard 2010; Kuru 2011; Grzymała-Busse 2012; Sarkissian 2012; Koesel 2014; Sezgin and Künkler 2014). International relations scholars have become more interested in the role of religion (Philpott 2000; 2009; Haynes 2001; Hurd 2007a; 2007b; Snyder 2011; Toft, Philpott, and Shah 2011), but work on foreign policy has clustered around a few topics including the role of religion in American foreign policy (Inboden 2010; Shah, Stepan, and Toft 2012; Bettiza 2013), the impact that religious groups can have on a state's foreign policy (Haynes 2008; Warner and Walker 2011; Grzymała-Busse 2015, 73) and the politics of state-support for religious freedom (Hurd 2015; Sarkissian 2015, Chap. 7).…”