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The increasing focus on and interest in religion has been good news for the field of international relations, which has a history of secularist bias and neglect of faith-related factors. Although this post-9/11 interest has run the risk of becoming a temporary fad, a number of prominent scholars have managed to explore the role of religion in humanitarianism, security, world orders, and regional politics without stripping issues of faith of their content. Given the pace of international politics with all its crises and tensions, we are continuously in need of quality scholarship that can shed light not only on the current role of religion but also on its impact during the times when academics and politicians of the West are tuned to political materialism. Religion and International Relations Theory is a collection of essays that successfully establishes this link, exploring the contemporary religio-political sphere and its background and evolution.
Edited by Jack Snyder, the volume brings together 10 scholars who discuss their respective research and how that research can extend our perspective when it comes to religion and international relations. In his introduction, Snyder briefly reviews how three major paradigms--realist (Waltzian), liberal, and constructivist--can benefit from taking religion more seriously. It is worth noting that this chapter is the only one in the book that systematically engages the international relations theory agenda. The essays that follow are rich in content, and they make insightful observations about religion and international relations. However, the authors keep the focus on their own research rather than on the mainstream IR theory agenda. In that respect, the title of the book is slightly misleading. Also, whether constructivism is a theory or methodology should be further problematized; the authors take it in the former sense. However, constructivist methodologies do exist in realism and liberalism and are not necessarily outside of...