Book Review: Ken R. Dark (ed.), Religion and International Relations (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000, 293 pp., no price given hbk.)
| Date | 01 December 2000 |
| Published date | 01 December 2000 |
| DOI | 10.1177/03058298000290030803 |
| Author | Jeff Haynes |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Millennium
900
than to illuminate the wider debate. The case is none the weaker for all tha t, and
the volume makes a worthy contribution to the existing literature on human rights,
culture and Islam.
EMMA MURPHY
Emma Murph y is Lecturer at the Centre for Midd le Eastern and
Islamic Stud ies at the University of Durham
Ken R. Dark (ed. ), Religion and International Relations (Basingstoke: Macmill an,
2000, 293 pp. , no price given hb k.).
The issue of rel igion in international relati ons has b ecome increasing ly important
in rece nt years for t he obvious re ason that there seem to be more rel igious actors
around than there were a few years ago. There are both i nternational actors—fo r
example, t he government of Iran—and a mul titude of transnatio nal actors, notabl y
Islamist an d Protestant evan gelical groups, which also bring a religious dimensio n
to world poli tics. Such develo pments, I would assume, form the back ground for the
volume under revie w.
The edit or has assembled an impressive list of contributors, all o f whom p resent
their chap ters in an infor mative and interesting manner. The major probl em I have
with this book is its eclecticness. We are not informed whe ther the chapters b egan
life a s conferenc e papers a lthough I would assu me this to be the case. The b ook
lacks a central theme, which, for me, undermines its value. The edito r presents a
three pa ge (!) introd uctory piece, as well as two, much more substantive, chapters
later on. In his introduction he informs us that ‘[t]his book ai ms to explo re some of
the implicat ions of religiou s beliefs and religiou s change for world po litics’ (p. vii).
Well, yes and no. It is c ertainly true that eac h chapter is conc erned with ‘religion’;
often, but not excl usively, in an internationa l or transnational context .
After the edit or’s brief introductory overview, t he book continues promisingly
with a chapter by Sc ott Tho mas, ‘Rel igion an d Interna tional Co nflict’. Tho mas
usefully surveys and explains different ways of p erceiving ‘religi on’ as an
internatio nal actor. This is fo llowed by an assessment, by Harrie t A. Harris, o f the
impact on international stabili ty of Protestant evan gelicalism. This, too , is a useful
survey of this neglected area. The third chapter, by the ed itor, is something of a
puzzle. Da rk is primaril y trying to refu te the pop ularly and academic ally accepted
notion that th ere has been a stron g trend towards secularisat ion in Western Europe.
He argues that, in fact, there has been l ittle change over th e last 150 yea rs or so in
people’s le vel of religiosit y. His conclusion is that there is a strong likel ihood that
Western Eu ropean governments, as a result of the ir rel igiously orientated
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