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Religious Appeals in Power Politics examines how states use, or attempt to use, confessional appeals to religious belief and conscience to advance political strategies and objectives. Through case studies of the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Russia, Peter S. Henne demonstrates that religion, although not as high profile or well-funded a tool as economic sanctions or threats of military force, remains a potent weapon in international relations. Public policy analysis often minimizes the role of religion, favoring military or economic matters as the "important" arenas of policy debate. As Henne shows, however, at transformative moments in political history, states turn to faith-based appeals to integrate or fragment international coalitions. Henne highlights Saudi Arabia's 1960s rivalry with Egypt, the United States's post-9/11 leadership in the global war on terrorism, and the Russian Federation's contemporary expansionism both to reveal the presence and power of calls for religious unity and to emphasize the uncertainty and anxiety such appeals can create. Religious Appeals in Power Politics offers a bold corrective to those who consider religion as tangential to military or economic might

Elizabeth Sepper (University of Texas at Austin - School of Law) & James David Nelson (University of Houston Law Center) have posted Religion Law and Political Economy (Iowa Law Review, Vol. 108, No. 5, 2023) on SSRN. Here is the...

Ball, N. Third World Militaries and Politics: An Introductory Essay. Cooperation and Conflict, XVII, 1982, 41-60. The involvement of militaries in the political process in third world countries has increased during the last three decades. At the same time, developing countries have continued to be confronted with very serious social and economic problems, and the attainment of self-reliant development remains an elusive goal. To understand the role played by organized force in the development process, it is necessary to understand the distribution of economic and political power within a society and how the military as one group of societal élites, albeit a particularly powerful group, fits into this structure. The distinction between civilian and military regimes is increasingly difficult to make. Very few military officers can rule without civilian assistance and many civilian rulers require the backing of the military or allow the military to have influence over the policy-making process. This paper looks at four broad groups within society which benefit the most by some degree of military involvement in the economic and political life of a country: domestic civilian groups, the military as an institution, individuals within the military, and foreign powers. Some of the major reasons why each of these groups favors a political and economic role for the military and how their interests coincide will be outlined. The ability of the military to control social and economic change through its monopoly over the use of force is pointed out, and it is suggested that self-reliant development can never occur as long as militaries continue to be involved in the governing process.

"This is an excellent collection of essays on youth in a number of Muslim majority (and minority) societies in the context of globalization and modernity. A particular strength of this volume is its ability to highlight the multiple and contested roles of religion and personal faith in the fashioning of contemporary youthful Muslim identities. Such insights often challenge secular Western master narratives of modernity and suggest credible reconceptualizations of what it means to be young and modern in a broad swath of the world today."

How we came to seek absolute good in religion and nature—and why that quest often leads us astrayPeople have long looked to nature and the divine as paths to the good. In this panoramic meditation on the harmonious life, Michael Mayerfeld Bell traces how these two paths came to be seen as separate from human ways, and how many of today's conflicts can be traced back thousands of years to this ancient divide.Taking readers on a spellbinding journey through history and across the globe, Bell begins with the pagan view, which sees nature and the divine as entangled with the human—and not necessarily good. But the emergence of urban societies gave rise to new moral concerns about the political character of human life. Wealth and inequality grew, and urban people sought to justify their passions. In the face of such concerns, nature and the divine came to be partitioned from the human, and therefore seen to be good—but they also became absolute and divisive.Bell charts the unfolding of this new moral imagination in the rise of Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, Hinduism, Jainism, and many other traditions that emerged with bourgeois life. He follows developments in moral thought, from the religions of the ancient Sumerians, Greeks, and Hebrews to the science and environmentalism of today, along the way visiting with contemporary indigenous people in South Africa, Costa Rica, and the United States. City of the Good urges us to embrace the plurality of our traditions—from the pagan to the bourgeois—and to guard against absolutism and remain open to difference and its endless creativity

The article provides insights into the driving forces that underpin new forms of political participation. Digital technologies offer opportunities for engaging in a wide range of civicallyoriented activities, each of which can contribute to deeper democratic engagement. Conventional acts of political participation are argued to be driven primarily by intrinsic motivations relating to self-efficacy and empowerment with participants feeling they can have influence over decision makers. Little research explores whether similar motivations drive participation in less conventional acts, as well as whether mobilisation attempts via social media by peers or political organisations mediate those motivations. Drawing on data from a survey among a representative sample of the UK electorate, we find the offline and online spheres of agency remain fairly distinct. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations both matter but extrinsic motivations have the strongest explanatory power independent of the sphere of activity. The mediating effect of mobilisation tactics has a minimal effect on extrinsic motivations, online or offline, but online intrinsic motivations lose their explanatory power. As intrinsic factors offer little explanatory power some forms of online political participation may lack meaning to the individual. Rather, these non-conventional acts result from reward seeking and are more likely to be encouraged by non-governmental campaigning organizations suggesting social media users are most likely to perform simple acts in support of non-contentious causes.

First published in 1996, Explorations in Difference explores how contemporary debates over identity and difference come into play within the workings of cultural, legal, and political institutions. The book brings together a variety of perspectives on the meanings and implications of difference in the context of postmodern theory. It is divided into two parts: Theoretical Accounts', which establishes a context for postmodern inquiries into difference, and Instances', which provides application to particular issues. Highly interdisciplinary, Explorations in Difference continues to have lasting relevance and will appeal to those with an interest in postmodern difference and its implications.