Acknowledging an Overlooked Dimension. Religion in International Relations Theory

Sammanfattning: In spite of numerous evidence of a global resurgence of religion in the post Cold-war world, scholars of international relations have continuously excluded religion from their analysis. This thesis investigates the reasons for this and suggests a way to include religion into the analysis of international politics. It argues that the reasons for the ignorance of I.R scholars when it comes to religion originates in the philosophies of the Enlightenment and the development of the modern-liberal states of the Westphalian state-system, which has made the dominant rationalist theories incapable of handling a concept like religion in their analysis. Drawing from the work of its most acknowledged scholars, the thesis presents social constructivism as an approach that has the possibility but, so far, not the willingness to include a comprehensive understanding of religion in the analysis of international relations. This is because of the state-centric research agenda of most constructivist scholars and their uncritical acceptance of the biases concerning religion that are included in the Westphalian state-system. The thesis concludes that, first when constructivists see their internal differences as opportunities and widen their research agenda will they be able to develop the full potential of their approach.