Browsing by Subject "systems thinking"

Counter-terrorism discourses have been increasingly studied during the recent decades but still mostly in the context of the Global North. One of the key researchers in this area is Elizabeth Shakman Hurd whose ‘Two Faces of Faith’ conceptual framework shows the tensions and consequences that arise when religion becomes an object of international public policy. The current study uses critical discourse analysis to apply this framework to two West African cases, ECOWAS and the G5 Sahel, to see how they construct the role of religion and religious actors in conflicts and peacebuilding. The data consist of 10 publicly available counter-terrorism and peacebuilding policy documents of the two organizations. The findings indicate that the ‘two faces’ framework is a relevant and useful analytical lens for investigating the role religious actors are given within the context of counter-terrorism and prevention of violent extremism. However, the documents are not a reproduction of Hurd’s arguments and often, the discourses do not follow the secularist dichotomies of the ‘two faces’ framework. Instead, religion is conceptualized through its role and position in the complex historical, cultural, and social systems in the region. Thus, even though the ‘two faces’ framework has been successfully used to explain the US-led political discourse on religion, more complex approaches based in systems thinking might be needed to conceptualize the West African understanding of the issue.