Includes bibliographical references and index.

Trans-state Islam and security / Dale F. Eickelman -- Muslim missionaries and African states / Ousmane Kane -- Bridging the gap between empowerment and power in Latin America / Daniel H. Levine and David Stoll -- Faces of Catholic transnationalism : in and beyond France / Danièle Hervieu-Léger -- Globalizing Catholicism and the return to a "universal" church / José Casanova -- World religions and national states : competing claims in East Asia / Don Baker -- Religious resource networks : Roman Catholic philanthropy in Central and East Europe / Ralph Della Cava -- In defense of Allah's realm : religion and statecraft in Saudi foreign policy strategy / Cary Fraser -- Dehomogenizing religious formations / Susanne Hoeber Rudolph.

Focusing on the dilution of the state sovereignty, this book examines how the crossing of state boundaries by religious movements leads to the formation of transnational civil society. Challenging the assertion that future conflict will be of the "clash of civilizations" variety, it looks to the micro-origins of conflicts, which are as likely to arise between states sharing a religion as between those divided by it and more likely to arise within rather than across state boundaries. Thus, the chapters reveal the dual potential of religious movements as sources of peace and security as well as of violent conflict.