Religious-Secular Struggles in Transnational Governance

Abstract

The economic, political and social changes brought about by globalization have strengthened – rather than diminished – religion’s transnational dimension and enhanced its public visibility and importance in transnational civil society. This development concurs with recent trends in IR research which has turned to explore the role civil society actors play in global governance. Many studies have investigated international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) or business actors as important players in today’s political decision-making at various levels of governance. Yet surprisingly, religiously motivated actors in transnational governance have found virtually no attention in IR research despite their increasing importance in policy-fields such as development, human rights, and peace and security. The proposed panel addresses the theme of the section by exploring how religious actors, i.e. actors drawing on specific religious traditions and shaping their transnational policies and actions accordingly, position themselves within the predominantly liberal, secular context of global governance. Taking research on private actors in global governance and norm research as analytical heuristics, the panel welcomes papers which present theoretical work and empirical research on transnational religious actors in various settings and contexts of governance. Are religious actors like any other (secular) private actor or is there anything specific about them deriving from their religious motivation to engage in transnational politics? What are the areas of religious-secular co-operation or religious-secular struggles? Do religious actors become socialized or even secularized over time? These and others questions may be addressed by the papers.

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