Journal of International Affairs articles from September 2007

Journal of International Affairs archives from September 2007

Editors forward.(Editorial)
September 22, 2007... It was ten years ago that the Journal of International Affairs examined religion's role in the post-Cold War period. At the time, new theories--such as the "end of history" and a "clash of civilizations"--influenced and divided much of the...

Tolerance and theocracy: how liberal states should think of religious states.(CAPSTONE ESSAY)(Essay)
September 22, 2007... Liberal democracies think of themselves as morally bound to respect the rights of their individual citizens. The decisions these states make, however, affect the interests of both citizens and foreigners. It is difficult to determine how the...

Outwitting the developed countries? Existential insecurity and the global resurgence of religion.(Essay)
September 22, 2007... Underdevelopment is also a state of mind, and understanding it as a state of mind, or as a form of consciousness, is the critical problem. Understanding development as a state of mind occurs when mass needs are converted to the demand for new...

Religious discrimination: a world survey.(ESSAYS)
September 22, 2007... Religious discrimination is a phenomenon that has existed for millennia but has recently been receiving increasing attention for two reasons. (1) First, a re-examination of secularization theory in the last two decades of the 20th century and...

Religions and international poverty alleviation: the pluses and minuses.(Essay)
September 22, 2007... Increasingly within the international development community and among religious organizations, it is argued that religious agencies offer something unique to development programs, especially to those designed to alleviate poverty. Generally,...

What religion brings to the politics of transitional justice.(ESSAYS)
September 22, 2007... The past generation might well come to be called "the age of transitional justice. (1) Over forty transitions from authoritarianism to democracy since 1974 and a historically dense spate of civil war settlements since the end of the Cold War...

Local religious peacemakers: an untapped resource in U.S. foreign policy.(Essay)
September 22, 2007... Sectarian violence in the Middle East; religious nationalism in South Asia; threats of religious extremism in the West; interreligious battles in Africa; religious suppression in East Asia. These realities suggest that religion plays a...

Islamic just war theory and the challenge of sacred space in Iraq.(Essay)
September 22, 2007... The ongoing conflict in Iraq has transformed sacred sites into battlefields. (1) Iraq's Sunnis and Shias are firebombing one another's mosques and executing assassination attempts on religious and secular leaders in the midst of prayer....

The fatal flaws in the U.S. constitutional project for Iraq.(ESSAYS)
September 22, 2007... One book critically assessing U.S. planning for post-invasion Iraq concludes that U.S. officials proceeded on the basis of uninformed and ideologically-slanted preconceptions, arrogantly presuming that Iraq could be treated as a blank slate...

The churches contribution to citizenship in Brazil.(Essay)
September 22, 2007... To govern is to steer through a swampy area full of mines. --Frei Betto (1) Brazil underwent a long and arduous transition process from an authoritarian to a democratic regime in the latter half of the 20th century, as part of what...

Putin and the Russian orthodox church: asymmetric symphonia.(Vladimir Putin)(Essay)
September 22, 2007... Following his inauguration as Russian president in May 2000, Vladimir Putin walked the short distance across the Kremlin grounds to the Cathedral of the Annunciation for a thanksgiving service. At this brief service, Patriarch Aleksii II...

An interview with Amien Rais.(about President Suharto's resignation )(Interview)
September 22, 2007... Amien Rais led and inspired the reform movement that forced the resignation of President Suharto in 1998, and ushered in an era of constitutional reform and democratization in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, Indonesia. Rais...

Iran: religious leaders and opposition movements.(ANDREW WELLINGTON CORDIER ESSAY)(Essay)
September 22, 2007... In many parts of the world, religious leaders have historically played a pivotal role during periods of social and political transition. (1) Their presence on the political scene has been particularly significant in societies where religion is...

Beyond a spiritual calling: the Saffron revolution.(PHOTO ESSAY)
September 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When the Myanmar (also referred to as Burma) government raised the price of gasoline for its already poor population, it triggered a series of events that would bring Myanmar and its Buddhist monks to the forefront...

Religion and democracy in India.(The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future )(Critical essay)
September 22, 2007... The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future Martha C. Nussbaum (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, Harvard University Press, 2007), 403 pages. As anyone familiar with India can attest, Indians take great delight in...

Politicizing Secularism.(The Politics of Secularism in International Relations )(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The Politics of Secularism in International Relations Elizabeth Shakman Hurd (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), 247 pages. National and international politics have recently undergone a religious revival of sorts and while the...

Salman Rushdie loses his cheerfulness: geopolitics, terrorism and adultery.(Shalimar the Clown)(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Shalimar the Clown Salman Rushdie (New York City: Random House, 2005), 416 pages. In Shalimar the Clown, a novel of love, betrayal and the agonizing struggle over the contested Himalayan region of Kashmir, Salman Rushdie reveals a deep...

The devil in the details.(God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything)(Critical essay)
September 22, 2007... God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything Christopher Hitchens (New York: Twelve Books, 2007), 307 pages. The recent prominence of religion in academia and the public consciousness-not to mention the incessant hiss of commentary in...

Why the French Don't Like Headscarves.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... WHY THE FRENCH DON'T LIKE HEADSCARVES John R. Bowen (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), 249 pages. In 2004, the French government overwhelmingly passed a law prohibiting students from wearing ostentatious religious symbols in...

Resurgent Voices in Latin America: Indigenous Peoples, Political Mobilization and Religious Change.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... RESURGENT VOICES IN LATIN AMERICA: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, POLITICAL MOBILIZATION AND RELIGIOUS CHANGE Edward L. Cleary and Timothy J. Steigenga, eds. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2004), 257 pages. To understand the aligning...

Ghana's New Christianity: Pentecostalism in a Globalizing African Economy.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... GHANA'S NEW CHRISTIANITY: PENTECOSTALISM IN A GLOBALIZING AFRICAN ECONOMY Paul Gifford (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2004), 216 pages. Africa's booming Pentecostal churches have nourished a solid body of anthropological...

The Cube and the Cathedral.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... THE CUBE AND THE CATHEDRAL George Weigel (New York: Basic Books, 2005), pages 202. In The Cube and the Cathedral, Catholic theologian George Weigel posits that the issues defining Europe today--from declining birth rates to support for...

The Limits of Culture: Islam and Foreign Policy.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... THE LIMITS OF CULTURE: ISLAM AND FOREIGN POLICY Brenda Shaffer, ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2006), 350 pages. The Limits of Culture: Islam and Foreign Policy is an impressive collection of essays that aims to explain the foreign...

Convictions of the Soul: Religion, Culture, and Agency in the Central America Solidarity Movement.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... CONVICTIONS OF THE SOUL: RELIGION, CULTURE, AND AGENCY IN THE CENTRAL AMERICA SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT Sharon Erickson Nepstad (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 224 pages. After devoting several years to activism against U.S....

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... AMERICAN FASCISTS: THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT AND THE WAR ON AMERICA Chris Hedges (New York: Free Press, 2007), 272 pages. America's Christian Right has had a devil of a year. George Bush, the country's first modern evangelical president, is...

Worlds of Power: Religious Thought and Political Practice in Africa.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... WORLDS OF POWER: RELIGIOUS THOUGHT AND POLITICAL PRACTICE IN AFRICA Stephen Ellis and Gerrie Ter Haar (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 256 pages. The separation of church and state has been a defining characteristic not only of...

The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God and World Affairs.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... THE MIGHTY AND THE ALMIGHTY: REFLECTIONS ON AMERICA, GOD AND WORLD AFFAIRS Madeline Albright (New York: HarperCollins, 2006), 352 pages. In her book, The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs, former...

Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity is Transforming China and Changing Global Balance of Power.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... JESUS IN BEIJING: HOW CHRISTIANITY IS TRANSFORMING CHINA AND CHANGING GLOBAL BALANCE OF POWER David Aikman (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2006), 418 pages. Economic growth and consumerism are typically understood to have a...