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The war on terror has shaped and defined the first decade of the 21st century, yet analyses of Britain's involvement remain limited and fragmentary. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of these developments. It argues that New Labour's support for a militaristic campaign was driven by a desire to elevate Britain's influence on the world stage, and to assist the United States in a new imperialist project of global reordering. Ostensibly set within a political framework of promoting humanitarian values, the government's conduct in the war on terror also proved to be largely counter-productive, eroding trust between the citizenry and the state, putting the armed forces under increasing strain and ultimately exacerbating the threat from radical Islamic terrorism. This book will be of interest to teachers and scholars of British foreign policy, international relations and security studies. It will also appeal to anyone interested in Britain's role in the war on terror

ABSTRACTPolitical scientists involved in the study of religion have expressed concerns that religious themes have yet to be fully integrated into the mainstream of the discipline. According to a study of articles published in leading political science journals during the first decade of the twenty-first century, papers engaging with religion were relatively few in number and highly concentrated in only a few thematic and disciplinary areas. This article presents an updated analysis of the extent to which political science has engaged with the topic of religion by examining journal outputs for the period 2011–2020. The study finds no significant change in the patterns identified by the earlier research. Despite an overall increase in the quantity of political science articles on the subject of religion, the overall proportion has been relatively static, and the thematic and disciplinary focus of outputs remains narrow.

AbstractThe public reason criterion is a prominent theme in contemporary political theory. Yet scholars have focused predominantly on conceptual and normative issues at the expense of empirical questions about the language used by actors engaged in political debate. This is a particular problem in the case of religious actors, whose underlying motives for taking part in such debates are frequently driven by theological concerns. This paper explores these issues by analyzing religious opposition to the legalization of assisted dying in Britain. It shows that religious actors have tended toward the use of secular rather than theological modes of argumentation, and that this is consistent with the idea of a strategic shift in response to the increasingly secularized nature of British society.

"Secularism and Religion" published on by Oxford University Press.

AbstractConservative Christian groups in Britain have been involved in a number of high profile and controversial policy issues. Scholarly research into the political activities of such groups, however, remains limited. This article addresses this lacuna by exploring the collective action frames deployed by conservative Christian groups in their attempts to influence national level policies and debates. Drawing on elite interviews with group representatives, it argues that these frames have been constructed largely in response to the pressures of secularization, but have, in many respects, become secularized themselves.

Religious issues are intrinsically political but have been largely excluded from the mainstream concerns of political science. This article considers some of the reasons why this has been the case, and suggests ways in which the imbalance might be addressed. Although the idea of developing a distinctive 'political science of religion' is not without its advantages, this approach is rejected in favour of one that is broader, interdisciplinary and more holistic.

Issues about the relationship between the religious and the secular have become increasingly prominent in recent years. In Britain, one of the central themes around this topic has been the emergence and propagation by leading religious and political figures of a concerted anti-secular discourse. This warns of the dangers posed by a militant, aggressive and intolerant form of secularism which is said to be driven by an ideological desire to force religion out of the public square, representing a clear threat to religious freedoms and social morality. This discourse has been shaped by a number of interrelated causal dynamics, but the religious and political influences involved differ substantially. Respectively, these relate to ongoing processes of secularisation and the increasing use of identity politics, set against the changing capacities of the British state and the electoral considerations of the Conservative Party.

AbstractState religions form one of the main features of the international political landscape, but scholarly research into their dynamics and effects remains limited. This article aims to address this deficiency through a comparative examination of state religions and levels of political and religious freedom. The findings show that countries with a state religion have substantially lower levels of freedom across a range of measurements than countries with no state religion. The absence of any clear correlation to levels of human development, religious diversity and religiosity indicates a key causal role for the institutional mechanics of state religion itself.

Proposals to legalise same‐sex marriage have provoked one of the most high‐profile and controversial political debates in recent years. The plans, being introduced by the governments at Westminster and Holyrood, have divided political and public opinion and have attracted widespread opposition from religious groups. However, while religious attitudes to homosexuality are shaped by theological concerns, religious justifications have been largely absent from the case against same‐sex marriage. Instead, religious groups have presented their arguments in secular terms centred on tradition, social utility, democratic values and the threat to religious rights and freedoms. This particular framing of the issue reflects processes of secularisation, a growing use of identity politics and the composition of religious groups themselves.