“Religion in a Values-Based Approach to Strategic Competition” is the title of a paper written by DKI APCSS professor Dr. Alfred Oehlers for Security Nexus. This article asks the question “Can we bring religious faiths and beliefs to bear in our strategic competition with our competitors?”

Excerpt
We speak often of a values-based approach to strategic competition.  In so doing, we usually operate within a mental frame that privileges familiar political and economic values such as those associated with our democratic political systems and practices, and our liberal market-led approaches to economic organization.  Less often do we draw attention to the place of religious faiths and beliefs within our value systems.  In a context of strategic competition, this omission potentially denies us an opportunity to more strongly differentiate and distinguish ourselves from competitor regimes.  More, we may be overlooking potentially productive avenues to strengthen relationships with our security partners.

Dr. Oehlers is a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. The views expressed in this article are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the DKI APCSS or the United States Government.

Security Nexus is a peer-reviewed, online journal published by the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.