Rarely in modern times has religion’s role in international affairs been discussed with the sense of urgency that it is today. In previous eras, religious passions fueled the fires that built nations, forged cultural identities, and raised up whole civilizations—often only to bring them crashing down again. Now, the world is as rife with uncertainty and insecurity as ever, and religion has again emerged as a potentially decisive influence on the course of human history.

Nonetheless, contemporary international analyses are usually grounded in the language of one or another analytical paradigm emphasizing, for example, economic incentives, technological change, or political interests. Prominent academicians heir to the legacy of the European Enlightenment have reinforced this trend by long arguing that religion was destined to be discarded, that it would become a mere a relic of a pre-modern past. Often called the secularization or modernization thesis, this once widespread view roughly holds that fundamental social forces cause individuals to identify less with the ethereal values of religion and more with mass political entities like the bureaucratic state or economic groups defined by market imperatives. Some versions of the thesis even claimed that religion could be expected to lose its centrality in international affairs as the world’s populace became better educated. Religious faith, they argued, cannot survive in the face of pervasive scientism. If true, the secularization thesis would imply that an international relations theory could explain conflict, cooperation, and political decision-making comprehensively while relegating religion to the status of an epiphenomenon, or perhaps without discussing it at all.

Yet the recent course of international affairs has forced many adherents of the secularization thesis into retreat. Far from being eclipsed by political or economic forces, religion as a social activity instead appears to be in a state of flux—or, more accurately, to be in many states of flux in different parts of the world. Violence in the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Kashmir, Yugoslavia, and elsewhere show quite clearly that religiously motivated conflict has not just abided but thrived in the 20th century, while the events of September 11, 2001, seem to have further solidified this view in both popular and political circles. Of course, religion factors into politics in ways besides violent conflict. As demonstrated in Iran and Afghanistan, the development of the modern state can serve as a vehicle for the empowerment of religious ideologies that successfully harness the strength of the masses. More generally, political parties around the world use religious imagery and rhetoric to influence public opinion. To secularists’ chagrin, this trend is even visible in developed Western democracies like the United States.

What could explain the “durability” of religion in the face of modernity? One body of scholarly literature emphasizes the “primordial” nature of religious identity, arguing that religious identity is an indelibly acquired trait that cannot be shed or changed. For primordialists, the resurgence of religious violence is no surprise. Freed from the restrictive political paradigms of the Cold War, religious affiliations have resumed their status as the primary source of social cohesion, leading at least one prominent scholar to declare the onset of a clash of religiously defined civilizations. Unfortunately, this claim has been seized upon with a self-defeating and perhaps even self-fulfilling dogmatism in too many quarters. In their zeal to isolate holistic oppositions between large populations, civilizationists underemphasize the importance of heterogeneity within groups, as well as the malleability of religious allegiances in the face of the more traditional economic and political social forces. Like the secularization hypothesis, civilizationalist theory offers answers about the importance of religion that are simply too easy. Their most steadfast supporters seem to forget that religious cooperation, like faith itself, is a complex and subtle operation.

Our cross-eyed symposium examines the impact of religion on the modern world with one eye on the past and the other turned toward the future. Beginning with pressing questions of religious radicalism, Karen Armstrong examines the forces behind the global surge in religious fundamentalism, while Mark Juergensmeyer describes religious violence against the secular state. Next, Symeon Giannakos provides a case study tracing the development of religious and statist identities in Southeast Europe. Keeping the pitfalls of civilizationalisms firmly in mind, Jonathan Fox draws on statistical evidence to show that religious factors are not the primary cause of ethnic conflict. Turning at last to ways in which religiosity can benefit the international order, David Smock evaluates the role of faith-based non-governmental organizations in peacemaking, and Robert Barro investigates the correlation between religion and economic growth. Throughout, the articles strive to meld traditional secularist arguments with a sensitivity for the special character and import of religious life in the modern world.