Brokering peace in a conflict involving majority religious populations needs religious literacy and an informed understanding of religious ideas and impulses, according to academics engaged in a growing area of research on how the worlds of religion and diplomacy intertwine. The latest theory is “Theo-Diplomacy”, observed and analysed by Kaleem Kaleem Hussain, honorary fellow at the Cadbury Centre in Birmingham.
In this Religion Media Centre briefing, he tested his views with David Porter, a specialist in conflict transformation, peacebuilding and religious conflict who helped to broker peace in Northern Ireland; and Dr Sara Silvestri, senior lecturer in international politics at City, University of London, who explained how religious ideas around the sanctity of life, the recognition that humans are imperfect, the nature of sin, the impulse to do justice and the disposition towards compassion can intertwine with political ideology and help to unlock intractable positions.
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