Role of Religion in Foreign Policy Decision Making

Abstract

Religion has a quantifiable role in shaping Foreign Policies and failing to acknowledge this would undermine the scope and effectivity of the discipline of IR. This study attempts to put Religion as an important factor in the decision-making process, which defines and orients a state’s foreign policy. This paper aims to inspect, establish, and analyze the nature of the role of religion in foreign policy decision-making. A significant body of scholarship has questioned the exclusion of religion from the discipline of International Relations and foreign policy decision-making by traditional paradigms. This study aims to understand and address to what degree does religion affect International Relations? What does religion’s role in triggering and escalating conflict signify? Therefore, this is a qualitative interpretative study that uses the methodology of discourse analysis. Content analysis of both sources was conducted to understand the meanings. It presents a framework that would lay the groundwork for policymakers and analysts to qualify and quantify the role of religion in foreign policy decision-making.