Before Recognition

Maria Birnbaum is Lecturer at the University of Basel and Senior Researcher of swisspeace. Her most recent publications include The Costs of Recognition (International Theory), Entangled Empire (Millennium), and Recognizing Diversity in the edited volume Culture and Order in World Politics (Cambridge, 2020), which won the ISA Theory Section Prize for the Best Edited Book.

• Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Narratives of exclusion and restoration; 2. Theoretically found, conceptually lost: the concept of religion in international relations; 3. The costs of recognition; 4. Religion and the colony: numbers, representation, and borders in British India and mandate Palestine; 5. Post-colonial religion: the entangled history of Israel and Pakistan; Conclusion; References; Index.

'Maria Birnbaum skillfully unpacks the many conceptual and historical antecedents that made it possible to speak of religion as a distinct category of knowledge in world politics and analyzes how its meanings have been shaped by incessant struggles for power. Full of fascinating insights, 'Before Recognition' is a major contribution to the study of religion in international relations.' Jens Bartelson, Lund University