When Geopolitics and Religion Fuse

A Historical Perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID3948153
AuthorsGertjan Dijkink (University of Amsterdam, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume11
Issue2
Pages192-208
Publication date2006-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650040600598403
OpenAlexW2048852524
LanguageEN
Citations received32
References cited11

This article provides a historic overview of the role of religion in international relations and discusses what the new pervasiveness of religion means from the perspective of critical geopolitics. Religion and geopolitics seem to have been caught in a zero-sum relationship. Religion helped to legitimate the world of states but receded when that world order developed its own logic (the Westphalian system). Where the (geopolitical) logic of the state system or security appears to fail, religion emerges as a source for the self-image of groups or the discourse on global relations. Religious visions in Christianity and Islam as holy land, holy war or millennialism (extensively discussed in this article) have a clear geopolitical character. They fit easily in the study of codes, script and narratives as practised in critical geopolitics. However in drawing general conclusions one should account for the completely different experiential world in which religiosity takes priority and for the independent causes of territorial conflict

Epistemology · Geopolitics · International relations · Islam · Narrative · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · Vision · Anthropology · Law · Philosophy · Political Conflict and Governance · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development

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