Gregorio Bettiza’s research projects and publications can be organized in three broad on-going research agendas: (i) Religion, States and Power in Global Politics; (ii) Ideology and International Order; and (iii) Theory, Sociology, and Pedagogy of International Relations (IR).
(i) Religion, States and Power in Global Politics
Bettiza is currently working on a new book project developing the concept of sacred capital to theorize and understand the entanglements between religion, states, and power in global politics. These are themes that he also recently addressed and explored in a working-paper and two co-authored book chapters for the Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power Project (2018-2023), a joint initiative between the Berkley Center at Georgetown University and The Brookings Institution. This research builds on Bettiza’s first monograph Finding Faith in Foreign Policy: Religion and American Diplomacy in a Postsecular World (Oxford University Press: 2019), which investigated why and how US foreign policymakers have increasingly sought to systematically understand and manage global religious dynamics since the end of the Cold War. The monograph was awarded three honorable book prize mentions.
(ii) Ideology and International Order
Bettiza is developing a second research agenda that connects his interests in religion and civilizations, to wider debates about ideology, illiberalism, and the changing character of international order. With a number of co-authors, Bettiza has shown how rising authoritarian powers engage in power political processes of normative contestation in the international system, and explored the emergence of civilizationism as a counter-hegemonic ideology to liberalism in international order. These recent publications build on earlier research explaining how religious norms diffuse in the liberal international order and on the resurgence of civilizational politics in the practice and theory of international relations. Bettiza has contributed chapters on the relationship between ideology and religion for the Routledge Handbook of Ideology and International Relations, and on religion, civilizations, and illiberalism for the Oxford Handbook of Illiberalism. He is also interested in integrating ideology more consistently in constructivist theories of IR.
(iii) Theory, Sociology, and Pedagogy of International Relations (IR)
Bettiza has a longstanding interest in the sociology, theory, and pedagogy of IR. In two co-authored journal articles with Stephane Baele they interrogate the “turns phenomenon” in the discipline and “what metrics do” to academics. In a series of forums, Bettiza has reflected on his own pedagogy, when it comes to teaching IR theory and its paradigms (the 'isms') as well as subjects like religion and (global) politics supposedly "not fit for polite conversation”. He is currently developing an interest in the relationship between theory and methodology.
