The Modern Dynamics of Politics, Geopolitics and Religion

Dear Colleagues,

The social sciences generally overlook how holy sites, pious practices, sacred symbols, or religious demographics are entangled in complex ways with world political dynamics, including conflict, peace, and security. This Special Issue draws critically on the concept of geopolitics to explore the ways that the spatial aspects, material elements, and everyday practices of religion/s powerfully intersect with and shape global events as well as outcomes. The aim of this Special Issue is to expand theoretically and empirically our understanding of religion’s influence in international relations beyond the overwhelming focus on beliefs, identities, and institutions.

We invite submissions from political science, sociology, anthropology, geography, and religious studies on the interactions of religion and geopolitics around three broad themes:

• Space, place, and boundaries. This theme includes, but is not limited to, explorations into the ways that sacred spaces shape conflicts and the justifications for ‘holy’ wars (e.g., jihad to free Islam’s holiest sites); how religious sites become entangled with symbolic diplomatic practices and alliances (e.g., American presidents visiting the Western Wall); the connections between religion, nationalism, and territory (e.g., India, Russia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Israel, and the U.S.); and the relationship between religion and boundary-making (and unmaking) practices at the local, international, and transnational levels.
• Demographics and bodies. This theme includes, but is not limited to, exploring how religious demographics can become a major site of conflict and contention (e.g., far-right antisemitism and anxieties of Islamicization, India–Pakistan partition, Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and Sunni–Shia); the ways that religious bodies shape and are shaped by world political events (processes of reincarnation, self-immolation, and the persecution of martyrs); or the complex entanglements between religion, ethnicity, and race.
• Symbols, objects, and practices. This theme includes, but is not limited to, investigations into the role of religious pilgrimages and processions in shaping peace and cooperation or conflict and violence; the international power of deploying, appropriating, or desecrating religious symbols and objects (e.g., presidents holding bibles, Qur’ans being burnt); or the contestation and conflicts over religious practices (e.g., proselytism, prayer, dressing, and eating).

Preference will be given to manuscripts that are theoretically driven and based on original research.

Prof. Dr. Jocelyne Cesari
Dr. Gregorio Bettiza
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.