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Terror, Religion and Identity
Constructivism and Modernisation Theory in…
- Terror, Religion and Identity
Constructivism and Modernisation Theory in International Relations
Clash of Civilisations
In 1993/6 Samuel Huntington published his argument that the future of world politics would be determined by competition between 'civilisational' blocs
Religion and 'Global' Terrorism
The rise of al Qaeda in the 1990s and especially the attacks on the USA in 2001 and the subsequent 'war on terror' forced questions of religion and 'global' terror up the adenda of world politics.
Causal Explanations: Culture
Huntington's thesis has been criticised for ignoring the tensions within 'civilisations' creating an everly simplistic - and therefore unhelpful - view of global politics.
Causal Explanations: Religion
In a similar way, explanations of 'new' or 'global' terrorism that stress Islam as a causal factor have to account for the sharp divisions within the Muslim umma (community) rather than take fundamentalism as representative of all Islamic opinions.
Causal Explanations: Economics
Globalisation creates 'winners' and 'losers'. Revolutionaries are rarely drawn from the poorest of the poor, but instead come from groups or individuals who have been blocked in their social, economic and political aspirations.
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Causal Explanations: Gender
Some of those explanations of blocked aspirations relate to gender: most terrorists are young men, Taking a normative stance, what can we infer from this knowledge and how might it help us combat terrorism?
Identity and 'Non-rationalist' Approaches to IR
'When constructivists want to try and understand what's going on in world politics, they first look to the kind of self-other relationships that are in force'
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Religion and International Relations
The Treaty of Westphalia (1648) marked an important moment in the subordination or religious affiliation (Protestant or Catholic) to state or national identification in Western political thought and practice.
Secularism: a history
Seclarism - meaning the relegation of religious matters to the private sphere - gained normative power during the 'long 19th century' (1789-1914) and became associated with 'Progress', whereas religion became associated with 'backwardness' and superstition amongst 'progressives'.
Secularism and World Politics:
Although secularism (or 'laicite' in French) appears to be value and identity-free, it can also be experienced as the imposition of one set of values (Western) over another
Modernisation:
Modernisation - strongly equated with 'Progress' - was exported from Europe and the United States ('the Atlantic world') to Asia, Africa and the Middle East and involved painful choices for elites seeking to catch up with the West and those groups and individuals forced to live with these decisions.
Uneven Development:
'Progress' in non-Western parts of the world was often experienced as the forced imposition of Western forms of rule and economy, even if it was sometimes local rulers who benefited from such arrangement
Revolt Against the West:
Must of the period of de-colonisation was an attempt by local elites to control modernisation on their own terms. To win this contest, elites needed to draw on one of their only resources: the people and their traditions.
Nationalism and Religion in the Middle East:
In post-colonial societies, the nation was a novel and relatively weak popular concept: religion, however, provided the intellectual depth and historical continuity to mount a challenge to Western modernity.
Globalisation: Triumph of the North?
Like secularism, globalisation appears to be value neutral, but has been criticised for being 'Americanisation' or 'Westernisation' by another name. But after the rift over the invasion of Iraq in 2003 does the West even exist anymore?
Religion and International Conflict:
The particularist critique of Western universalism suggests that secularism is specific to a historical time and place and cannot be applied everywhere without threatening values fundamental to some people's social existence
Inter- and Intra-civilisational Tensions:
Instead of viewing international relations as structured by inter-civilisational struggles and 'identity' as single, monolithic categories, it is best to look for the tensions and divisions within civilisations and identities in order to search for the dynamics driving global politics
Secularism and Terror:
Forms of terror feed off each other - politically and violently - seeking the polarisation and radicalisation of wider populations.
Four Waves of Terrorism:
- Late 19th century: Anarchism and the 'propaganda of the deed'
- 1920s-60s: the anti-colonial nationalist wave
- 1960s-80s: the Marxist wave
- 1970s to date: the religious wave
CONCLUSIONS
What we broadly might call 'identity' appears to play an important part in generating or sustaining conflict today, particularly global terrorism
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Rather than seeing the religious dimension of this as part of a wider 'clash of civilisations' it is better to examine the tensions within identities, rather than see identities themselves as the source of conflict.
