School of Diplomacy and International Relations Core III Courses
CORE 3850 (DIPL 3850)
Church, State, and Politics in Latin America
3 credits
This course has two central objectives: (1) to provide students with an understanding
of the evolving role of religion in Latin American politics, with a primary emphasis
on the role of Catholicism and the Catholic Church from the period of the Second Vatican
Council until the present; and (2) to provide students an opportunity to reflect on
the normative questions of how religious beliefs and religious institutions should
affect politics and of how different political systems and state policies should affect
the practice of religion. The major themes, to be examined through both Catholic and
non-Catholic perspectives, include the institutional relationship between the Catholic
Church and the state, the different political expressions of Catholicism (from those
inspired by Liberation Theology to supporters of Christian Democratic or Conservative
political parties), the persecution of the Church under certain authoritarian regimes
and the Catholic response, the rise of religious and political pluralism, and the
role of religion in contemporary politics and public policy.
CORE 3851 (DIPL 3851)
Religion, Law and War
3 credits
This course will examine wars of religion and religious views of war. We are living
through an era fraught with religious warfare – wars animated by religious conflict
and wars that use religious abuse as weapons to demoralize and subdue the enemy. The
course will focus on three major religious traditions (Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism)
and set in dialogue their respective views of war, assess their contributions to the
contemporary laws of war, and examine particular historical episodes of religious
conflict – as well as contrary episodes of religious toleration.