■ A thematic series growing out of a partnership between the Berkley Center’s Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power project and the United States Institute of Peace looks at a wide range of religious and political dynamics in the Balkans. The working papers in the series touch on external religious influences on the Balkans, post-war religiosity, Middle Eastern influences, and interreligious relations in the region, and politics of the Russian Orthodox Church and its transnational expressions. The researchers present a profile of a still volatile and complex “intermingling of religion, culture, and politics in a geopolitical hotspot.” One working paper by Harun Karčić examines how the political architecture created after the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s has stepped up Russia’s political and economic influence and mobilized proxy organizations to project its narratives, protect its interests, and slow the region’s integration into Western institutions. Other papers look at how the Serbian Orthodox Church maintains a position of authority in Montenegrin society due to the church’s power over the decision-making processes in the country; and how transnational evangelical communities create interethnic tolerance in Serbia through their humanitarian activities, inclusiveness of minority and marginalized groups, and influence in the Serbian diaspora. The series can be downloaded from: https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/subprojects/the-geopolitics-of-religion-and-culture-in-the-western-balkans-a-thematic-series
Source: The Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs.
