Foreign policy and Religion or Secularism

Besides security and warfare, it is also essential to evaluate the influence of religious factor in foreign policy and other inter-state affairs.

“Religion being a soft power influences foreign policy in an irregular manner.”[1] Most often policy is taken considering state interests. Even in religion based pre-Westphalian international order there were constructive relations between dissimilar religious countries. For example, in peace time Byzantine and Abbasid two contending empire had diplomatic cooperations.

Security, Warfare and Religion in International Relation

In security and warfare religious connection is not similar in all parts of the world. This mainly depends on the political status of religion on that particular state or region. In many cases, religion is used as a device to manipulate war and insurgency which can destabilize the security of states.

Most of the states of Europe are inhabited by the people of Christian religion. Cultural similarities are visible in those countries. Most parts of Europe have designed their security plan in a secular means, Judio-Christian secular manner. European countries commonly adopt the policy of co-existence with stable national security. Some of these countries are the member of NATO. Europeans have formed Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). This organization is free of religious value.