Today,4:30pm:Peter Katzenstein:"Civilizational States, Secularisms, and Religions"
Maryam J. Rutner
"Civilizational States, Secularisms, and Religions"
A talk by
Peter Katzenstein
Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell
University
President-Elect of the American Political Science Association (2008-2009)
Chaired by
Jack Snyder
Robert & Renee Belfer Professor of International Relations
Alfred Stepan
Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and
Religion (CDTR)
Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government
This talk is based on the working paper "Civilizational States,
Secularisms and Religions." An electronic copy of the paper is
available on CDTR's website at
http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/cdtr/index.html or on the website of the
Saltzman Institute for War and Peace Studies at
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/siwps/.
Description of the Talk:
Disciplined social science research has yielded one important result:
States, capitalisms, and democracies are variegated and complex and
must be understood in their multiple manifestations. If three core
components of secular politics are not well conceptualized in the
singular, why should secular politics in the international system?
Peter Katzenstein's talk does not start with the assumption that, by
privatizing religion, the Peace of Westphalia left international
politics fully secular. Furthermore, the speaker does not assume that
secularism should be conceived of in the singular. Secularism, in the
singular, is central to substantively different arguments about
international relations: realist power politics, liberal
cosmopolitanism, and Marxist class struggle. All three view religious
conflicts as relics of a bygone era, a sideshow to the struggle over
primacy, the coordination of conflicting objectives, and the dynamics
of class conflict. There is something appealing and implausible about
this view. Appealing is the search for simplification and a
parsimonious understanding of international politics. Implausible are
the denial of the continued relevance of religion for world politics
and a view of secularism in the singular despite the fact that many
aspects of secular politics -- state, capitalism and democracy -- are
so variegated empirically.
Katzenstein first explains why scholars of international relations
focus on secularism in the singular and all but disregard religion in
their analyses. Seeking to show the intermingling of secularisms and
religions in world politics, he then develops the concept of the
"civilizational state" as an alternative to the "rational state."
Informed by the writings of Yasusuke Murakami, Katzenstein inquires
into the topic of cultural commensurabilities in world politics.
Date: Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Time: 4:30 - 6:30pm
Location: International Affairs Building, Lindsay Rodgers Room, 7th Floor
A reception will follow the talk.
The talk is co-sponsored by the Political Science Department, the
Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, the Center for the Study
of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR), and the Institute for
Religion, Culture and Public Life (IRCPL).
--
Maryam J. Rutner
Departmental Research Assistant
Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR)
School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)
Columbia University