Religious Multilateralism
In contrast to the current view, according to which international relations are thought to be a secularized space, many international organizations engage with the religious factor.
Founded in 1969, and now with 57 member states, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OI) is the only international organization explicitly founded on a religious basis. In the context of the time, it reflected the attempt to regain control of this factor, particularly on the part of Arab states which have been weakened by the rise to power of political Islam.
It also aimed to offer a cohesive response, given the lack of coordination among these states in the context of the Six Day War and the Al-Aqsa Mosque fire. Although the Muslim religion is the condition for joining the OIC (the religion is defined according to loose criteria, which enable constitutionally Islamic states to join, but also other states which include numerically large Muslim minorities), representation is exclusively inter-state and its fields of action (political, economic and commercial) in no way reflect the theological divisions of its members.
Conventional multilateral organizations have also incorporated increasing visibility of the religious factor into international relations. UNESCO was one of the first organizations to formalize it by establishing a Chair in Interfaith Studies in 1999, followed by many initiatives in interfaith dialogue, which was presented as a necessary condition for international peace. The UN designated 2001 as a “year of dialogue between civilizations” (on the initiative especially of the Iranian president Khatami). Subsequently, in 2005, it encouraged the foundation of the “Alliance of Civilizations” (these latter being defined mainly by religious criteria). These initiatives are part of a dual approach to religious phenomena, which consists in condemning ways of expressing faith that are likely to produce conflict while at the same time encouraging those aspects conducive to peace. A critical view of these initiatives highlights the fact that, on the one hand, they tend to overestimate the role of religions as variables explaining either conflicts or reconciliation processes; while, on the other, they convey a uniform and standardized view of religious groups perceived as legitimate in the eyes of the organizations concerned, reinforcing the marginalization of denominations or practices that are not represented.
Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OCI) membership dates
Comment: The diagram and colored areas on the map show that since 1969 the OIC, an inter-state organization with a religious basis, continues to grow, and includes membership of states where Muslims are in the minority (absence of hatching, or less than 22% of Muslims).
- space > Space
- A term with multiple meanings and uses and a category given far less consideration by philosophers than the concept of time. Space as a concept has long been a theoretical difficulty (lack of consensus) for geographers – for whom it should be the primary object of study. Contrary to the common representation of space as a natural expanse filled by societies, space is a social product that is constantly reconstructed by social interactions. It constitutes one of the dimensions of our social life, at once material and cultural. To speak of social space does not in itself tell us what form this space takes – whether it is territorial, or networked, or both at once.
- international organization > International Organization
- In the words of Clive Archer, an IO is “a formal, continuous structure established by agreement between members (governmental and/or non-governmental) from two or more sovereign states with the aim of pursuing the common interest of the membership.” Marie-Claude Smouts identifies three characteristics of IOs: they arise out of a “founding act” (treaty, charter, statute), have a material existence (headquarters, finance, staff), and form a “coordination mechanism.
- minorities > Minority
- Any social group which finds itself in an inferior situation relative to a dominant group in a given society. This situation can be expressed quantitatively, but can also be defined with reference to qualitative data of a cultural nature (linguistic, religious, ethnic, national, even social minorities). Membership of a minority can be a matter of self-identification or an ascribed identity; it may bring with it various kinds of discrimination. The presence of minorities can give rise to social engineering policies (positive or negative discrimination), or demands for protection and recognition.
- peace > Peace
- The definition of peace is much debated. A restrictive definition sees peace simply as an absence of conflict (negative peace). Peace Studies reinterpreted this definition to include the conditions necessary for peace – positive peace must be an integral aspect of human society. Combined with the concept of structural violence, positive peace was then defined more broadly to include social justice. Among the different theories of peace, the sometimes criticized notion of democratic or liberal peace asserts that the liberal democracies do not go to war with each other and only fight against non-liberal states (this approach qualifies Kant’s postulate in Perpetual Peace, 1795).
- conflicts > War
- Violent confrontation between armed groups over values, status, power or scarce resources, in which the aim of each party is to neutralize, weaken or eliminate their adversaries. This organized, collective, armed violence can be undertaken by states (via their national armies) or by non-state groups; it can bring several states into opposition (interstate war) or occur within a single state (civil war). The former, progressively codified within a legal framework, have become rare, while the latter, today primarily caused by state institutional failure, are tending to become more international in scope, to last over time (sometimes decades) and to be extremely devastating, especially for civilian populations.