Religion and International Relations: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It?

The article surveys the recent scholarly study of religion and international relations/International Relations (ir/IR). The focus of the article is on two discrete periods: pre-11 September 2001 ('9/11') and post-9/11. During the first time period, Iran's Islamic revolution (1979), the civil war in former Yugoslavia and Huntington's 'clash of civilisations' (1993) were major foci of attention. The second period saw a large number of scholarly accounts following the 9/11 attacks on the USA, with a sustained focus on the international securitisation of Islam. The article concludes that following the recent diminution of the threat to the West of Islamist terrorism-subsequent to the apparent demise of Islamic State and the fragmentation and dissipation of al Qaeda-the study of religion in IR theory needs to take better account of changing circumstances to arrive at an improved understanding of how religion impacts on international relations/International Relations.