This book has several main themes and arguments. International Relations has been westerncentric, which has contributed to its ignoring religion; while religion is not the main driving force behind IR, international politics cannot be understood without taking religion into account; the role of religion is related to the fact that IR has evolved to become more than just interstate relations and now included elements of domestic politics. The book proceeds in three stages. First, it looks at why religion was ignored by IR theory and theorists. Second, it examines the multiple ways religion...

Jonathan Fox's new work provides the first systematic, empirical study of the role that religion plays in ethnic violence. Ethnoreligious Conflict in the Late Twentieth Century critiques the existing literature on religion and ethnic conflict, then presents and analyzes original quantitative data gathered from a variety of sources. Fox draws upon the Minorities at Risk model of ethnic conflict to develop and test a dynamic and comprehensive theory of religion and conflict. He applies this theory to resurgent conflicts between ethnic groups of different religions--from the Iranian revolution...