Centre for Religion Human Values and International Relations

Led by: Philip McDonagh

The Centre is dedicated to forward-looking, praxis-oriented research in the spaces where religion, human values, and international relations intersect. The Centre’s engaged research is supported by a teaching programme for graduate students. The Centre has an academic partnership with the Irish Council of Churches/Irish Inter-Church Meeting (ICC/IICM), works closely with the Dublin City Interfaith Forum (DCIF), and has organised events in Brussels, Vienna, Prague, Rome, and Warsaw. 

The Centre has a particular focus on the ‘missing ingredient’ in contemporary politics and diplomacy – namely 'spaces of shared projection'  enabling cross-cultural deliberation and discernment in a perspective of two or three decades. Article 17 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), if it works well, can inspire a similar dialogue in individual jurisdictions inside and outside the European Union and encourage international organisations to engage in more depth with churches, faith communities, faith-based initiatives, and philosophical organisations.  
 

Publications and Projects

In the period 2021 – 2024, multi-stakeholder projects of engaged research have been carried out by the Centre on the future of Europe, the economics of belonging, resilience in global food systems, the ethics of AI (an EU project), comparative peace processes, and regenerative agriculture (in Malawi). A co-authored book, On the Significance of Religion for Global Diplomacy, underpins the work of the Centre.