Religions in Cold War Korea and Peacemaking: Guest Editors' Introduction

Abstract

The Cold War is commonly understood as a global conflict that was principally about secular ideologies, the confrontation between two mutually exclusive visions of modernity that we refer to as capitalism and socialism. This understanding prevails in the existing academic literature concerning the second half of the twentieth century, and it also affects how we conceptualize the constitution of the contemporary world. The decade following the end of the Cold War witnessed rising ethnic nationalism of a religious nature, especially, but not exclusively, in the former Eastern Bloc. The Bosnian War (1992–1995) in the former Yugoslavia was one of the most shocking and tragic examples in this regard. The ensuing decade saw a series of other military crises—conventional and unconventional—which were often conducted in the name of specific religious doctrines or as countermeasures to these manifestations of religious fundamentalism. This situation provoked prolific debates, both in academia and the broader public, about the nature of modern secular society. Concerned commentators questioned what had happened to the ethics of secularism and whether modern political systems could coexist with forces that denied religious freedom and pluralism, the cardinal principles of modern political life. The whole situation reinforced the impression that religion had reentered politics in today’s world, and the related understanding that our time is in contrast to the Cold War era in which secular, rather than religious, ideologies held sway. Recent studies of Cold War history clearly show, however, that the above impression is misguided. Religious ideas and forces played formative roles in the making (and unmaking) of the bipolarized world of the Cold War era. For instance, Andrew Preston (2012) has explored the role of American Christian groups and movements in shaping US foreign policies during the Vietnam War. Observers of Central Asia and the Middle East are well cognizant of the fact that questions of Islamic fundamentalism, which are debated furiously