Exploring the role of religious leadership in promoting an end to conflict - November 2022

Against the background of an increasing threat of a third intifada and a growing scepticism over any foreseeable revival of the moribund Israeli/Palestinian peace process, we organised a meeting of religious, academic, and political leaders at St George’s House, Windsor. The purpose of the meeting was to allow an exchange of experiences and to examine the role of religious leaders in promoting durable political agreements to end conflict. It was prompted by the awareness that religious can frequently complicate the search for a political solution and, therefore, any meaningful process requires a theological underpinning to avoid the risk of derailment by religiously inspired protagonists. Some think that the failure to recognise the religious dimensions of the Israel-Palestine issue undermined the 2000 Camp David negotiations and most subsequent efforts to resolve that conflict.

The combination of the Enlightenment and the Treaty of Westphalia led Western secular thinking to regard religion as irrelevant in the political sphere and of no real consequence in the search for a peaceful solution to conflict. Samuel Huntington’s ‘Clash of Civilizations’ thesis may have over-emphasised the potential divisive role of religion in shaping the identities of different peoples, but his controversial argument underlined the fact that religion cannot be ignored in the search for solutions to armed conflict. The tracker of major conflicts worldwide produced by the Council on Foreign Relations’ Center for Preventative Action suggests that out of the current twenty-four conflicts, fifteen – over 60% – have a religious dimension. Such figures underline the importance and timeliness of the Windsor consultation, the findings of which are summarised in this short report, which can be accessed below.