Causes and Consequences of Transnational Religious Soft Power.

Scholarly and policy interest in the involvement of religion in international relations has increased in recent years, often with a focus on various kinds of transnational religious actors - including the Roman Catholic Church, al Qaeda and Shii networks in the Middle East. Some transnational religious actors affect international order, especially networks of Islamic extremists and terrorists. This paper has several objectives. First, it examines the nature of transnational religious actors. Second, it looks at transnational religious soft power. Third, it discusses how transnational religious soft power can influence international outcomes. Fourth, it focuses on Iran's influence in Iraq in relation to Shii transnational religious networks. To be successful it appears necessary for transnational religious actors to be successful in maintaining and disseminating their global message while adapting to the local. The Roman Catholic Church was able to do this in relation to democratisation and human rights in the 1980s and 1990s and al Qaeda was able to do it for a while following the USSR's ejection from Afghanistan until its brutal methods dramatically undermined popular support. The paper contends that Shii transnational networks involving Iran and Iraq show the relatively limited capacity of Shii transnational religious actors, as they are find it very difficult to forge collective goals. Instead, such collective goals are undermined by resolutely nationalist concerns. This is not to allege that nationalism necessarily trumps religious collective goals although it seems likely that in most cases this will indeed be the case. Further work is needed on religious transnationalism actors to determine whether this is likely to be the case but the very limited evidence presented in this paper suggests that we underestimate the power of nationalism and locality at our peril when seeking to understand what religious transnationalism can accomplish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]