Faith and Diplomacy in a Modern World The human race has been struggling to find peace between religion and diplomacy for decades. The start of numerous wars was due to a misunderstanding between policy makers and religious figures. Religion is an emotional thing, something that happens with compassion and understanding and traditions, people will take disrespect of a religion as a personal offence. Diplomacy is something that uses rules and regulations to control and order. This is why the two will never truly be on even playing field where an individual could choose a side. There needs to be combining of the two to prevent issues from arising. That’s why each religion must be studied and learned. To run any successful government …show more content…
Albright tells us that religious wars are proven to be drawn out much longer and are much bloodier wars then the average (Albright 2). “As our experience in Iran reflected, the United States has not always understood this well enough. To lead internationally, American policy-makers must learn as much as possible about religion, and then incorporate that knowledge in their surgery – a necessary task, but fatal if not done well” (7). Albright illustrates that it is important to have a complete understanding of the culture of those you are trying to have diplomatic relations with. As the Dalai Lama said “We must rise to the ethical challenge as members of one human family, not as a Buddhist, a Jew, a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim. Nor is it adequate to address these ethical challenges from the perspective of purely secular liberal political ideals, such as individual freedom, choice, and fairness” (Dalai Lama 53). Once we can accept everyone’s religion, we can have a fully functional government. Until then we have to remember to respect one another and all other countries views if we wish global decisions to go the way we want for the best of the people. So many people in America complain about others needing compassion and understanding beliefs. My question to these people is this: Why are you not properly educating every generation to fully understand the world’s religions? I know the answer, and even though
The World Leaders didn’t completely remove religion from the equation, but cherry picked the plumpest and juiciest parts, while discarding the mushy and rotten bits that nobody wants: sacrifice, repentance and remorse. In Mustapha Mond’s own words, “Christiantiy without tears”. But the religion they put as a place holder is merely a shell of what could be something meaningful, and it’s wasted potential and
Daisaku Ikeda, a spiritual leader for Japan once commented, ‘Japan learned from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that tragedy wrought by nuclear weapons must never be repeated and that humanity and nuclear weapons cannot coexist.’ The world has experienced the bombings of Japan, of Pearl Harbor and the conflict of the Cold War, but even with these conflicts present in our history, warning us of the effects, these meaning have not carried through into society today. Currently in the Middle East, we are witnessing the elements of a modern day cold war starting to appear. Israel and Iran have been in arguments and disagreements about nuclear weaponry since 2012. Their different religious view and ideologies has flourished into more than a religious tension but that of a modern day cold way.
The United States has a long history of great leaders who, collectively, have possessed an even wider range of religious and political convictions. Perhaps not unexpectedly, their beliefs have often been in conflict with one another, both during coinciding eras, as well as over compared generations. The individual philosophies of William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, with regard to America’s roles in world affairs and foreign diplomacy; are both varied and conflicted. Despite those conflicts however, each leader has left his own legacy behind, in terms of how the U.S. continues to engage in world affairs today.
Religions differing has caused many conflicts throughout history. “The feeling of attachment to tribalism and fake patriotism under the umbrella of religion is stronger and more apparent than respect for human rights and pluralism” (Mhamed 2). When people are tied so greatly to their religion, they will be willing to throw away their morals and do whatever they deem is right for their beliefs, leading to constant wars. “different tribal and so-called patriotic groups resort to religion to gain legacy and popularity” (Mhamad 2). Religion is even just a way to unite people to war such as saying they are doing something in the name of their deity
Religious ignorance is an imperative issue throughout the world because it is fundamental to billions of people’s lives. It is tremendously relevant and the underlying reason for some world issues and society today. In addition, it can also be the solution to problems. For example, in the United States, white Christians assisted in the election of Donald Trump as president based on his religious stances. It is a civic problem that affects American politics domestically and abroad. We need to understand the importance and value of religion in order to understand how the world
With the lenses of a good historian, Noll has given us the role American Christianity has played in the changes that occur in global Christianity today. Terms like “American experience”, “American Christianity”, “American Mission”, “American power”, etc., undoubtedly express the American role in the expansion of Christianity. As they attempted to spread the gospel, Americans, by large, decontextualized neither their theology nor their understanding of missions. Hence, Noll rightly described in his book“…How American Experience Reflects Global Faith.” Both American orthodoxy and orthopraxis were taught and reinforced as a golden standard in various parts of the world.
Throughout history, the rise of cultures led to the rise of cultural difference, and those differences both separated people and brought people together. Every culture must choose whether they will allow their differences from other cultures to cause political unrest and war or collaboration and growth. While most people within almost every culture strives for peace, political and religious radicals cry out that deaths of infidels will lead to the greater good. But the sons and daughters of the mothers and fathers, and the brothers of the sisters and the husbands of the wives, taken from them fail to feel justified.
Throughout the whole world there are world leaders that lead their respected countries into a peaceful era. Presidents, dictators, tsars, monarchs, Kings and queens have been some political leaders that people tend to elect and also look up to for advice and even protection. Even though these figures are known to be very influential in everyday lives, by making decisions that change the face of the world, there are also others that have been known to bring peace to places that others couldn’t do. These are religious leaders such as the Pope, the Dalai Lama, and also God figures have been known throughout history to be the solution of problems where the military, and money cannot solve. This essay will go through some of the similarities and differences between the religions,
This essay will discuss how the cultural domains of Religion, Ethnicity/Nationalism, Development and Geography (REND-G) compare and contrast the predominant cultural characteristics of the U.S. with those of the European Union. Specifically, we will discuss how the different characteristics of Religion manifests in the way the U.S. and Europe deal with security concerns.
I’m not saying that by opening our doors, a Christian obligation, we will be succumbing to a given (im)position. But one needs to understand the historical perspective that brought us to this moment, and the reason why some world leaders — including Netanyahu, for example, to whom the press does not hesitate a second to point out the finger — may be acting correctly, although they seem to be terribly wrong; while others may be terribly mistaken, although in our eyes they might be doing the right thing — like Angela Merkel, which lately is being led to take a stand on controversial and crucial issues concerning the future of civilization at every other
To Start off, the only two religions that don’t like going into a war is Christians and Jews. As I said, it states in the 10 commandments, “Thou shalt not kill,” if so then they should not go into wars even if it’s
Another aspect that plays into conflicts is outside powers getting involved too much or too little to secure their own influence in the aftermath. When outside powers become aware of cross-cultural conflicts they are criticized if they get involved and also if they don’t. Like Huntington’s argument, Samantha Power an ambassador to the United Nations from the US, would have us rather look at the loss of life rather than political nonsense. In her book A Problem From Hell, Power’s writes a quote from Ambassador Morgenthau saying that “unless it directly affected America lives or American interests, it was outside the concern of the American government,” as a way to show how outside powers look at these conflicts . She argues that more international
that religion and politics have a long history in the Middle East does not mean that religion is always, or even most of the time, a crucial factor driving political conflicts. Most of the politics of the Middle East have been viewed by those inside and outside the region as driven by religious difference. From the Arab-Israeli conflict to the Iranian revolution to the emergence of
In every point of human history, we observe, a common scenario of religious activities is to establish peace. The way of religion to establish peace may be
Leonard Binder states, "Most observers see little good coming out of an ethnic narcissism that conduces to the demonization of the other." (p. 6) These conflicts often escalate to the point where the original crisis fades into the background, and the participants lose sight of it altogether. Each group believes that when one gains, the other loses automatically. Similarly, when one group compromises, it is also a loss. This is particularly difficult when religion is involved because groups will not compromise their beliefs and ethnic loyalties are very strong. Additionally, nation-states include ethnic strategies into their government, foreign policy, and politics in general. (Binder 8)