Religion: A Missing Component of Professional Military Education PKSOI Paper | Page 19

tary intelligence), the character of conflict is invariably
misunderstood.”23
Former secretary of State Madeleine Albright
notes that there are few spaces within the academic
discipline of International Relations where diplomats
can develop a “sophisticated understanding” of religion and its influence on world affairs.24 She further
notes that religion does not disappear from the world
stage merely as a result of our ignoring it.25 Religion
cannot simply be wished away. In today’s world, an
understanding of religion is “essential”26 for successful peacebuilding.
In many instances, religion provides the only social structure in fragile states, as well as failed ones.
Religious leaders may be the only individuals with
credibility among a failed population. And, religious
institutions may be the only ones in place through
which civil society can continue functioning.
As states fail, so can moral and ethical practices.
Failing and failed states can be places of cultural,
structural, and direct violence. Corruption often replaces governance. Examples are too numerous to list;
Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Congo
are but a few exemplars of states unable to provide for
the human security of its citizens. Religion can keep
morality and a sense of justice alive.27 Religion has
within it the capacity to reintroduce the moral dimension into conflicts that have transitioned to violence.
Clausewitz notes, moral elements “constitute the spirit that permeates war as a whole, and at an early stage
they establish a close affinity with the will that moves
and leads the whole mass of force, practically merging
with it, since the will is itself a moral quantity.”28
Religious actors can, and should, be engaged as coequals alongside others in the peacebuilding process.

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