ERC Starting Grant · 2025
Illiberal Religious Internationalism in Africa
This project explores authoritarian regimes’ use of transnational religious networks to vie for influence in Africa, an understudied phenomenon at the nexus of religion, cultural relations, and soft power politics. Although religious actors have long formed alliances to challenge liberal institutions, the participation of major global powers in these alliances, especially within postcolonial contexts, remains under-researched. This project addresses this gap by analysing Russia’s religious soft power strategies in Uganda, focusing on the Orthodox Church and Islamic institutions. To gain influence, Russian illiberal elites leverage international religious networks by exploiting cultural…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.