Religion, The Missing Dimension Of Statecraft Essay, Research Paper

Religion, The Missing Dimension of Statecraft

Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson, editors

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Editors: Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson compiled these essays for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Douglas Johnston has since founded the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, with the goal of encouraging faith based mediation through education and strategy development. Cynthia Sampson is the president of Peace Discovery Initiatives, a faith-based organization with the goal of peace building around the world.

Argument: The main focus of this book is to bring religion back into politics. For various reasons, the religion factor has been removed from policy making around the world, to the detriment of international relations. Johnston conveys the importance of religion when dealing with international policy, especially when one of the parties has a worldview that is deeply rooted in religion. Seven examples of how religious involvement positively affected international relations and eventually brought about reconciliation are used: the role of the Moral Re-Armament Movement in Franco-German Reconciliation, the role of religious groups, especially the Quakers, in restoring peace between the Sandinistas and the East Coast Indians, the role of the Quakers in the Nigerian civil war, the role of the churches in East Germany during the break down of the Berlin wall and the events leading up to that even, the role of the Catholic Church and the 1968 revolution in the Philippines, the role of the church during apartheid in South Africa, and the role of religious actors in the transformation of Rhodesia to Zimbabwe.

The main reason given for the success of religious actors in conflict resolution is their ability to gain trust and act as “honest brokers” between the groups involved. The Western powers cannot afford to ignore the importance of religion around the world nor can they afford to let the rare skills of relationship building brought by religious actors to go to waste. Religious groups have the desire and key qualities of trust building, patience, and unbiased involvement necessary to facilitate reconciliation and build peace around the world. These attributes are vital to reconciliation and mediation in a world where deception and diplomacy often come hand in hand.

Analysis: It clear that one of the key factors of the success of religious actors (RAs) in conflict resolution is their focus on reconciliation and a true desire to be unbiased mediators. Unlike others at the proverbial table of peacebuilding, religious actors usually seek only reconciliation and peace, and not personal gain. This, along with their ability to build faithful relationships, is a vital part of their work. Many government officials have picked up on this, and have used them to carry messages between themselves and other parties involved in conflict. RAs are often referred to as “honest brokers” in the book; years of trust building were required to build these bonds of trust. However, this trust is invaluable when it came time to sit down and talk. Most faith-based NGOs see this as a core value of the process of reconciliation; they understand the need for a trusting relationship to be built in order to be truly reconciled. Emerging leaders should take the message of this book into consideration and know that in order to truly change the world reconciliation must be built on a firm foundation of trust and honesty, both of which are key elements in faith-based mediation. The subject of why religion has been taken out of contemporary diplomacy was neglected, though this information would have given the reader a firmer foundation from which to defend their argument to include religion as a factor in international policy.

The book is very thorough and well thought out. Readers will become well educated about the facts and people involved in each story. A reader should be very careful not to let the endless details slow their reading but to continue to gain an understanding. The book is useful to both the reader that just wants ideas pertaining to the use of religion in international policy and the reader who is looking for specific examples to use. I found myself confused by the style of some of the authors that wrote in great detail and reiterated their examples two or three times, being more specific each time. Be prepared for this but not discouraged. If you are looking for research material these details will benefit you, if not simply skim through the detailed facts and take what information you find necessary. This book is easy to follow and provides great information on many of the key players in conflict resolution around the world, such as the Quakers in London, the Organization for African Unity in Africa, and the Moral Re-Armament group that has worked all around the world. The editors took care to provide every detail possible about each event.