Islam and Statecraft

Instead of religion influencing political outcomes, this analysis examines how politics influences religious outcomes. Dominant analyses examining the utilization of religion as a tool of statecraft in the Middle East remain overwhelmingly fixated on how Islam influences the foreign policies of different state actors – not how political considerations often influence the forms Islam assumes and how religion itself is often molded according to strategic considerations of political elites. That Islam, due to its “unique” or “exceptional” relationship with politics, drives political outcomes at the international level in the Middle East is a myth this book tackles by demonstrating how the political considerations of ruling elites – specifically, the intersection of domestic and foreign threats – influence and constrain the kinds of religious soft power strategies adopted by states in the region. This book develops a comprehensive analytical framework for the notion of “religious soft power” capable of incorporating power-based, identity-based, and ideational variables to examine how states couple religion with their broader foreign policy conduct. This framework is applied to the Middle East through the specific examination of three countries - Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates - in the period following the Arab Uprisings to demonstrate how specific religious narratives, identities, histories, and ideologies are constructed by political elites in the Middle East for the advancement of what are inherently political objectives, namely the imperatives of regime preservation and power projection.

In this cutting-edge exploration, Hoffman flips the usual, causal explanations that often abound when exploring the relationship between religion and foreign policy in the Middle East. This work is rich in both empirical detail and conceptual insight, making it required reading for scholars exploring the relationship between foreign policy and religion., With Islam and Statecraft, Jon Hoffman opens up entirely new vistas for understanding how Arab Gulf nations deploy Islam to advance their regional and international agendas. A stunning and significant portrait of the new geopolitics of religion that should be read by scholars and policymakers alike., Religion has been a tool of statecraft for over a millennium but how does this manifest itself in the modern Middle East among pro-American autocratic regimes? This groundbreaking study reveals how and why it happens with a focus on foreign policy. An essential read on religion and authoritarianism in the Arab World.

Jon Hoffman is a Research Fellow at the Cato Institute, USA, specializing in U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, Middle East geopolitics, and political Islam. He is also an adjunct professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, USA.