Religion as ‘Prime Institution’ of International Society

Religion features in early English School work, disappears, and reappears in more recent literature. Arguably, it has not yet found a solid place in this theoretical framework, even though the English School is known to provide angles on the evolution of international society other approaches lack. Religion can unite and divide; leading to a strengthening or a weakening of identity and legitimacy. Faith endures and it can exist independently of states, it can constitute them and it can provide new forms of states and societies. Employing previous English School ideas from early and contemporary English School scholars as points of departure, religion is introduced as a ‘prime institution’. Based on the English School’s understanding of primary institutions constituting international society, this concept of a ‘prime institution’ provides an additional layer to international society. Such a prime institution helps grasp the multifacetedness of religion in the context of international society; identify patterns of religion’s (in-) significance for primary institutions; and examine the difference between religious and religion-averse states within the international society. This prime institution is illustrated with a so-called ‘quilt model’, which depicts the multiple layers of international society.