Abstract:

Many policymakers have attempted to use appeals to religion as a tool in power politics in the hope that they—like Monty Python's holy hand grenade—would solve seemingly intractable problems. Drawing on his new book, Religious Appeals in Power Politics, Peter Henne will demonstrate that these religious appeals do affect power politics, but—again like a holy hand grenade—not in the way their wielders hoped. These findings push conventional security studies to take religion more seriously, while also challenging the study of religion and international relations to allow for a more complex effect of religion on the world.

Bio:

Peter S. Henne is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of Middle East Studes in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Vermont. His research focuses on religion and international security, and Middle East politics. His work has appeared in International Studies Perspectives, International Studies Review the Journal of Church and State; Journal of Conflict Resolution; Journal of Peace Research; Politics and Religion, Religion; State and Society; and Terrorism and Political Violence. He is the author of Religious Appeals in Power Politics (Cornell, 2023) and Islamic Politics, Muslim States and Counterterrorism Tensions (Cambridge, 2017). Henne previously worked for the Pew Research Center, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, and Booz Allen Hamilton. He received his PhD in Government from Georgetown University, and BA in Political Science from Vassar College.