Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Role of Religion in War and Peace

University Of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN

Investigators

Abstract

SES-1003045 Mary Ellen Koniezny Christopher Morrissey University of Notre Dame How and why does religion either support or oppose state-sponsored violence? The case of the highly polarized public debate in the United States before the beginning of hostilities in Iraq in 2003 provides an important opportunity to examine religious advocacy when many religious groups took divergent positions for or against the war. This study asks the following empirical research questions: How and why did religious advocacy against the Iraq War differ from religious advocacy for the war? How similar or different were religious and secular advocacy on the war? How did religion enter the broader debate over the war and what were the consequences of its participation in the debate? To answer these questions, the study analyzes public documents to analyze the cultural structure and content of the public debate. Second, the study uses interviews of important elite participants based in Washington, DC in the public discussion in order to better understand their strategies and networks that may otherwise be obscured by analysis of only the documents that made it into the public record. Finally, the study will use a variety of polls to analyze any shifts in public opinion on the issue of the Iraq War. Broader Impacts In this "Age of Terror" there is much interest in the relation of religion to violence and peace. By investigating variation in religious advocacy both for and against state violence, this dissertation could potentially offer valuable understanding and information beneficial to society, both domestically and internationally, in curtailing violent conflict.