The Vatican's Role in Global Politics

The Vatican is the head of the largest and most centralized religious organization in the world. It is also a sovereign state with diplomatic representatives across the globe. The Vatican, as a religious authority, often challenges secular authorities in areas of international economics, human rights, and security. Consistent with neosecularization theory, the Vatican has greater influence when its efforts resonate with secular justifications for particular policies. The Vatican's efforts in international debt relief, international religious freedom, and against the recent wars in Iraq demonstrate this finding. This has important implications in that we can expect religion to continue to play a significant role in international issues. The Vatican, in particular, provides an intellectually interesting and practically important interlocutor with global Islam.