Positioning Religion in International Relations: The Performative, Discursive, and Relational Dimension of Religious Soft Power

Amidst the global religious resurgence in the post-secular world, the field of international relations finds itself unwilling or unable to situate religion back to theoretical paradigms subject to the Westphalian–Enlightenment prejudice. Advocates of religion’s theoretical and empirical significance...

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Autores principales:	Zikun Yang, Li Li
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	religions international relations soft power evangelical US foreign policy political sociology Religions. Mythology. Rationalism BL1-2790
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/4b38d2594ffb46bcbaf9343319ade205
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:4b38d2594ffb46bcbaf9343319ade2052021-11-25T18:52:41ZPositioning Religion in International Relations: The Performative, Discursive, and Relational Dimension of Religious Soft Power10.3390/rel121109402077-1444https://doaj.org/article/4b38d2594ffb46bcbaf9343319ade2052021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/11/940https://doaj.org/toc/2077-1444Amidst the global religious resurgence in the post-secular world, the field of international relations finds itself unwilling or unable to situate religion back to theoretical paradigms subject to the Westphalian–Enlightenment prejudice. Advocates of religion’s theoretical and empirical significance often turn to religious soft power, a burgeoning theory that gradually becomes the anchorage of discussion but still suffers from conceptual ambiguity and limited explanatory capacity. This essay endeavors to fill in this lacuna by presenting the interdisciplinary attempt to integrate soft power in IR with the three dimensions of power in sociology, which results in a typology of performative, discursive, and relational dimensions of religious soft power. The explanatory and predictive capacity of this model is tested in the empirical case of the evangelical group’s influence on US foreign policy of the post 9/11 Global War on Terror. A process-level historical account based on archival sources furthers scholars’ knowledge of transnational religious actors’ ability to seize both systematic transformations at the international level and contentious dynamics in the domestic environment, which generates a reorientation in norms, identities, and values that contributes to the outcome of foreign policy, thereby answering the un-addressed question of how religion influences domestic and international politics. The bridging of IR, sociology, and historical sociology, three fields often intertwined, suggests a future direction for not only the religious return to IR but also the overcoming of the “intellectual autism” of this discipline, which needs to be better prepared for continuous challenges of soaring populism, nationalism, and clash of civilizations in the twenty-first century.Zikun YangLi LiMDPI AGarticlereligionsinternational relationssoft powerevangelicalUS foreign policypolitical sociologyReligions. Mythology. RationalismBL1-2790ENReligions, Vol 12, Iss 940, p 940 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	religions international relations soft power evangelical US foreign policy political sociology Religions. Mythology. Rationalism BL1-2790
spellingShingle	religions international relations soft power evangelical US foreign policy political sociology Religions. Mythology. Rationalism BL1-2790 Zikun Yang Li Li Positioning Religion in International Relations: The Performative, Discursive, and Relational Dimension of Religious Soft Power
description	Amidst the global religious resurgence in the post-secular world, the field of international relations finds itself unwilling or unable to situate religion back to theoretical paradigms subject to the Westphalian–Enlightenment prejudice. Advocates of religion’s theoretical and empirical significance often turn to religious soft power, a burgeoning theory that gradually becomes the anchorage of discussion but still suffers from conceptual ambiguity and limited explanatory capacity. This essay endeavors to fill in this lacuna by presenting the interdisciplinary attempt to integrate soft power in IR with the three dimensions of power in sociology, which results in a typology of performative, discursive, and relational dimensions of religious soft power. The explanatory and predictive capacity of this model is tested in the empirical case of the evangelical group’s influence on US foreign policy of the post 9/11 Global War on Terror. A process-level historical account based on archival sources furthers scholars’ knowledge of transnational religious actors’ ability to seize both systematic transformations at the international level and contentious dynamics in the domestic environment, which generates a reorientation in norms, identities, and values that contributes to the outcome of foreign policy, thereby answering the un-addressed question of how religion influences domestic and international politics. The bridging of IR, sociology, and historical sociology, three fields often intertwined, suggests a future direction for not only the religious return to IR but also the overcoming of the “intellectual autism” of this discipline, which needs to be better prepared for continuous challenges of soaring populism, nationalism, and clash of civilizations in the twenty-first century.
format	article
author	Zikun Yang Li Li
author_facet	Zikun Yang Li Li
author_sort	Zikun Yang
title	Positioning Religion in International Relations: The Performative, Discursive, and Relational Dimension of Religious Soft Power
title_short	Positioning Religion in International Relations: The Performative, Discursive, and Relational Dimension of Religious Soft Power
title_full	Positioning Religion in International Relations: The Performative, Discursive, and Relational Dimension of Religious Soft Power
title_fullStr	Positioning Religion in International Relations: The Performative, Discursive, and Relational Dimension of Religious Soft Power
title_full_unstemmed	Positioning Religion in International Relations: The Performative, Discursive, and Relational Dimension of Religious Soft Power
title_sort	positioning religion in international relations: the performative, discursive, and relational dimension of religious soft power
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/4b38d2594ffb46bcbaf9343319ade205
work_keys_str_mv	AT zikunyang positioningreligionininternationalrelationstheperformativediscursiveandrelationaldimensionofreligioussoftpower AT lili positioningreligionininternationalrelationstheperformativediscursiveandrelationaldimensionofreligioussoftpower
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Positioning Religion in International Relations: The Performative, Discursive, and Relational Dimension of Religious Soft Power

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