Abstract
What is the power of religion and how does it operate in the secular world of international relations? The communist leaders in Poland and the Soviet Union discovered that the pope had no army divisions but he had legions of followers. So did Francis of Assisi in his day, and so do the Franciscans and the Sufi orders, and the Dalai Lama and Osama bin Laden, and countless other religious leaders, orders, and movements in our time. How should we understand the meaning and influence of these religious non-state actors or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in international relations today?
What the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world. … For them, any foreign country is a motherland, and any motherland is a foreign country.
—The Epistle to Diognetus (A.D. 120—200)
“How many divisions have the NGOs?” one might ask, echoing Stalin’s dismissive question about the Pope.
—Fred Halliday
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Notes
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© 2005 Scott M. Thomas
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Thomas, S.M. (2005). The Soul of the World? Religious Non-State Actors and International Relations Theory. In: The Global Resurgence of Religion and the Transformation of International Relations. Culture and Religion in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403973993_5
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