Engaging with the Religious: a Decentred Opportunity for (Secular) European Diplomats?

This paper analyses the relevance of the religious and the secular in EU foreign policy. The main argument is that EU foreign policy is importantly centred around the concept and the value of secularism. European foreign policy, like international relations as a discipline, is very much driven by the principle of separation of the conduct of diplomacy and religious affairs. It also uses secularism to exert power externally, to export it as a value and to define what religion is good or bad. The centrality of secularism is at the heart of EU’s Self biography and the othering of the religious (and in particular Islam). At the same time though the religious as a legitimate polity to talk with is increasingly being recognised by European diplomats through practices such as religious engagement or the promotion of freedom of religious or belief. The European External Action Service (EEAS) has particularly changed its narrative and practice by claiming that the EU ought to become ‘religiously aware’ and gain ‘religious literacy’. The paper analyses how the EU is recognising the legitimacy of the polity of the religious and its relevance in international relations. In particular it studies the thinking behind the development of the Global Exchange on Religion in Society launched in 2019 by F. Mogherini