Errol A. Henderson

The World Religion Dataset, 1945–2010: Logic, Estimates, and Trends

This study introduces a new dataset on world religions. The World Religion Project consists of (a) a systematically developed classification of major world religions and religious families within major world religions, which enabled (b) the collection of data on the distribution of the population of all states in the international system across these religious categories, over the period of 1945–2010, and (c) a set of methods to reconcile among conflicting data from multiple sources, to deal with missing data, and to integrate multiple figures for a given observation. In the present study we discuss the significance of the World Religion Project, its internal logic and the development of the religion tree system of classification, and the data collection and data management process. We then provide a number of descriptive statistics about national, dyadic, regional, and global distributions of world religions, as well as some preliminary relationships between the religious similarity of states and their regime type, alliance patterns, and propensity to conflict. We discuss the potential contribution of this dataset to the study of the relationship between religion and international conflict and cooperation.

Disturbing the Peace: African Warfare, Political Inversion and the Universality of the Democratic Peace Thesis

This article tests the applicability of the democratic peace thesis to sub-Saharan African states by examining a ‘political inversion’ thesis. This suggests that the domestic political framework of African states compels their leaders to engage in international conflict, contrary to what the democratic peace thesiests: namely, politically open African states are more likely to fight each other. This conclusion raises the issue of the universality of the democratic peace thesis; therefore, the extent to which the democratic peace is evident across other regions of the world is examined. Empirical analyses of state dyads 1950–2001 demonstrate that politically open African states are more likely to fight each other and, moreover, the democratic peace does not hold in any region outside the West. These findings support the political inversion thesis of African conflicts and challenge the suggestion that the spread of democracy will occasion international peace throughout the world.

Mistaken Identity: Testing the Clash of Civilizations Thesis in Light of Democratic Peace Claims

Cultural identity has become prominent in studies of world politics in the post-Cold War era. First, a growing literature in world politics has emerged that focuses on the impact of social culture, broadly conceived as the shared religious, racial or ethnolinguistic characteristics of a society. The significance of this aspect of culture is epitomized in studies focusing on ‘ethnic conflicts’, ‘ethnic security dilemmas’, and most prominently in Huntingtons ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis, which suggests, among other things, that shared civilization membership is the fulcrum upon which post-Cold War era world politics rests. Secondly, the impact of political culture, broadly conceived as the shared norms and institutions guiding political behaviour in a society, has become increasingly salient, as evidenced by the bourgeoning literature on the democratic peace thesis, which posits that the extent to which a state (or pair of states) is democratic is a major determinant of its war-proneness. Adherents of this view argue either that although democracies are just as war-prone as non-democracies they rarely fight other democracies, or that democracies are more peaceful than non-democracies, in general.

Hidden in plain sight: racism in international relations theory

This article addresses the centrality of racism in international relations (IR) theory; specifically, in realism and liberalism, two of the most prominent paradigms of IR. It examines the extent to which these major paradigms of world politics are oriented by racist—primarily, white supremacist—precepts that inhere within their foundational construct, namely, anarchy. I maintain that due to the centrality of anarchy—and other racially infused constructs—within these prominent paradigms, white supremacist precepts are not only nominally associated with the origins of the field, but have an enduring impact on IR theory and influence contemporary theses ranging from neorealist conceptions of the global system to liberal democratic peace claims, and constructivist theses as well.

Unintended consequences of cosmopolitanism: Malcolm X, Africa, and revolutionary theorizing in the black power movement in the US

Abstract During the black power movement (BPM) in the US and the contemporaneous anti-colonial movement in Africa, African-Americans sought to emulate the liberation struggles in Africa. BPM revolutionists, epitomized by Malcolm X, attempted to adopt the practices of the African liberation struggle to overthrow white supremacism in the US. Pursuant to that, Malcolm developed his thesis on black revolution in the US from a static, unidimensional, religious-based conception into a dynamic, multidimensional, secular framework; however, the cosmopolitan turn in Malcolm’s influential thesis inadvertently limited its applicability to the US. Specifically, it contributed to (1) Malcolm’s reverse civilizationism, which privileged developments in Africa over those in the US; (2) his conflation of the conditions facing Africans with those faced by African-Americans, suggesting the salience of a colonial framework in understanding both; (3) his adoption of a UN petition strategy to address the human rights issues of black America, following a failed strategy of previous activists. Each of these unintended consequences of Malcolm’s cosmopolitan turn contributed to the theoretical enervation of the BPM.

Bargaining or Backlash? Evidence on Intimate Partner Violence from the Dominican Republic

ABSTRACT This essay explores the role of economic, political, and social factors in the incidence of intimate partner violence (IPV). It considers the extent to which two prominent theses on the determinants of IPV – (1) the household bargaining model (HBM), and (2) the male backlash model (MBM) – best explain this phenomenon in the case of the Dominican Republic. Drawing on the 2007 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), which differentiates between physical and sexual IPV, results from logistic regressions reveal that the HBM better explains physical IPV, while the MBM better predicts sexual IPV. Further, the HBM does better accounting for IPV among wealthier women, while the MBM best explains IPV among poorer women. The findings suggest the need to reconsider broad programs and policies intended to prevent and ameliorate IPV in the Dominican Republic, and to implement targeted initiatives focusing on the economic factors motivating them.

Ethnic Conflicts and Cooperation

Ethnic, or interethnic, conflict refers to disputes between contending groups who identify themselves primarily on the basis of ethnic criteria and who make group claims to resources on the basis of their collective rights. Ethnic criteria may include perceptions of shared culture, nationality, language, religion, and race. An ethnic group is a collective sharing of a belief of common ancestry, a link with a specific territory, a perception of a shared culture, and a belief in a common destiny. This belief in a common ancestry owes as much if not more to myths than to genetics. To be sure, some ethnic communities may result from consanguineous or kinship ties, but to the greatest extent heritage is a function of belief and not genetic descent. It is inconceivable that somewhere in antiquity there are primordial parents of each ethnic group in the world. Nonetheless, myths of common descent are powerful inducements to ethnic identification. Such myths provide symbols around which elites can focus political, economic, and social activity. They provide emblems and totems representing in-group and out-group membership. Two factors are among the most significant bases of group identity: belief in a historic homeland and the perception or practice of a shared culture. The latter is often expressed as shared language, religion, race, or customs.