Secularisation as an International Crisis of Legitimacy

Scholars of International Politics have recently come to grip with theglobal resurgence of religion. Since the inception of the field of International Politics,the secularisation thesis had been taken for granted and religion dismissedas unimportant. But in line with the current transformation affecting societiesworldwide as well as with the re-consideration of the secularisation thesis bySociologists, new resources must be developed within IR to better understandcurrent events. While theories and concepts have been developed within Sociologyand the Political Sciences, no such tools are available in International Politics.Thus, this article provides a tentative theory of secularisation drawing onresources endogenous to the field. Drawing on recent advances in the broadlyConstructivist tradition, this article re-interprets secularisation as a protracted internationalcrisis of legitimacy