Vedran Obućina

This text examines the complex and ambivalent role of religion in historical and contemporary global conflicts, particularly focusing on the mechanisms through which religions have influenced the prevention of world wars and promoted peace. The global landscape features over 4,500 religions, with Christianity and Islam as the largest. Religions shape moral norms, communal behavior, and both positive and negative social outcomes. While religion is often linked with violence, the relationship is multifaceted. Statistical analyses show religious conflicts may initially appear more intense, but deeper integration of the religious context often diminishes this correlation. Religion can be both a divider and connector in conflicts. Religious leaders and institutions are recognized as “religious diplomats,” offering spirituality-based mediation and reconciliation. The text explores interreligious dialogue (IRD) as a transformative tool, emphasizing pluralism, meaningful conversations, restorative justice, and the importance of listening. Examples include cooperation after the 2011 tsunami in Japan and ecumenical initiatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Clergy and lay believers can mitigate conflict and aid reconciliation. Their spiritual authority, ability to mobilize, and unique resources (prayer, forgiveness, scriptural legitimacy) are highlighted, though their impact is difficult to quantify. Faith-based diplomacy is presented as a distinct field, emphasizing the necessity of integrating political and theological approaches. The document acknowledges issues such as the difficulty of measuring religious peacebuilding, the slow pace of change, and the influence of populism, nationalism, and fundamentalism.

In times of secular advancement, religious organisations began with widespread creation of common ground for a defence of religious and spiritual values worldwide. Ecumenism and interreligious dialogue became a norm for almost every denomination and world religion, focused on theological discussions, forms of unity, religious diplomacy and religious peacebuilding and humanitarian aid. Religious institutions act as an important societal stakeholder and clergy enjoys authority and legitimacy in an overwhelming number of countries. This comes as an important addition to peacebuilding efforts in post-conflict societies, particularly if those societies are multi-ethnic and multi-religious. Such cases can be seen in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Syria, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, and many other places in the world where religion is being misused for political and nationalistic goals. Empirical research of such activities should also focus on spoilers in those processes. Spoilers are persons or institutions who believe that peace emerging from negotiations or dialogue threatens their power, worldview and interests, while violence, negative peace, status quo or lack of initiatives are used to undermine achievements of peacebuilding. In a religious sense, many spoilers think of ecumenical and interreligious tendencies as a betrayal of key values or disadvantage of their position in society. Spoilers may seem very interested in peace processes, they may be part of interreligious councils and play a role in various initiatives, but are insincere in their commitments, have various strategies and tactics to avoid true reconciliation and may have been positioned from their respective institutions. This paper is a result of in-depth research of interreligious peacebuilding initiatives in the Bosnia and Herzegovina and suggests ways to discover spoilers and challenges local communities face with them in the process.