US Foreign Policy. What's religion got to do with it?

One of the prevailing themes in Sino-Western relations, and US domestic politics, since the eve of the Cold War in the 19th century, has been that of the importance of religion and faith. For example, US McCarthyism was notoriously anti-communist, and in large part this was specifically on the basis of the perceived and much maligned (in the United States) godlessness and irreligion of communist ethos and polity.

In his public US State Department social media posts, US Secretary of State Pompeo frequently uses discourse emphasising the undesirability of the CPC's anti-religionism and anti-faith disposition. In a recent visit to Prestonwood Baptist Church, Mr Pompeo referred to the CPC as godless, thus reviving the rhetoric of the McCarthy era (a practice that is now commonplace in public discourse of the US State Department, and in US media culture).

The irreligious and anti-religious nature of CPC, and general communist, polity, is increasingly heavily promoted by the US State Department as undesirable. It's perceived and promoted as being corrosive of, and opposed to, human and social virtue. The accompanying rhetoric promotes pro-religionist disposition and polity as the ideological and moral paradigm par excellence, with the implication that the US Republican Party (GOP) and its supporters are a paragon of such cultural and civil virtue.

This propensity to endorse religionism and fideistic epistemology as virtuous are perceived, and frequently promoted, by US Republicans as a longstanding commitment of cultural and moral values in America. However, the historicity of these claims of US foundational religionism is demonstrably shaky, with constitutional scholars frequently demonstrating opposite commitments in the nation's founding political principles.

Moreover, observers and analysts have pointed out that, when it comes to religonism, there are some broad inconsistencies embodied in both the discourse and rhetoric of the State Department, and in the political dynamics and geopolitical actions of the US as a global power and nation state. Additionally, it often isn't clear to what extent the individual members of the GOP are personally aligned with such values, despite their party line rhetoric. Many commentators have noticed indicators of significant disconnect between President Trump's overarching ideological modus operandi and his public pro-religious rhetoric, noting that much of what is done from the podium is pragmatic: often on the basis of economics and power maintenance.

The history of US wars and warfare in the Middle East and South West Asian regions have frequently exemplified anti-religious underpinnings. Yet, their wars in south East Asian Communist nations in the second half of the 20th century were significantly motivated by ideological commitments to stamp out the irreligious ideologies of socialism and of communism. More recently, the US' government and media's attacks on China's human rights record in Xinjiang province are increasingly met with reminders of the US' current and recent actions against Islamic theists both internationally and domestically. These actions have included economic and immigration sanctions, as well as (in the Middle East) hot warfare.

In the US domestic setting, still more opposition to a Pompeo style national religonised ideology is evident, and has been longstanding. There is a large and steadily growing population of unbelieving and irreligious citizenry in the US. Their various representative voices frequently re-assert the secular nature of the US constitution and emphasise the central tenet and virtue of separation of Church and State. It is arguable that the attacks on the ideological irreligious commitments of the CPC by Secretary Pompeo and the currently ideologically hawkish State Department are in fact significantly ideologically misaligned with the US constitutional religion-state separation law. It could be seen as incongruous for The State Department to attack the CPC for enforcing just such a policy and laws.

In this connexion, the emphasis of US Republican religionists is on freedom of religion, with frequent accusations levelled at the CPC for repressing religious freedom. However, the major religions, including Christianity and Islam, enjoy large followings in China (the Christian population is known to outnumber the membership of the CPC) and are subject to surprisingly few sanctions and controls. The current rhetoric of the US State Department with regard to the CPC's actions in Xinjiang have, regrettably, been increasingly shown to be significantly propagandist, and to involve large scale disinformation and misrepresentation of the situation on the ground in Xinjiang province.

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The interplay between religious discourse, psychology, social psychology, economics, and politics is notoriously complex. SWRG is committed to investigating the philosophical, ideological, geopolitical, economic, and social psychological dynamics at work in this area of US foreign policy and Sino-Western relations.

- Dr Bruce Long