**1. Introduction: Religion in International Relations**

For most of the 20th century, religion was kept at the margins of international relations (IR) analysis. For many scholars, be they historians, sociologists, or political scientists, religion was no longer a driving force in history. Nevertheless, the 'death of god' in the secular age, as Charles Taylor described it, was not so overwhelming, since people all over the world have come to seek for plenitude of their identity (Taylor 2007, pp. 1–24). Since the 1970's, religious feeling has been strengthening in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, ye<sup>t</sup> it has also surfaced in the West, with the powerful emergence of religious discourses, such as the paradigms of Christian or Jewish millennialism.

By the same token, IR were undoubtedly influenced. For example, the consolidation of religious discourse in the practice of IR was facilitated by a number of variables. First, religion offered the mechanisms of legitimization by making use of symbolism that allowed the solidification of ethical and value systems. Second, the need for satisfying domestic constituencies regarding external relations often led to the adoption of a religion-based discourse. Third, religion provided ground for making the use of violence against domestic or international enemies applicable and justifiable (Fox 2009,

pp. 277–79). This was the case with Iran during the war with Iraq in the 1980's, when the Iranian state discourse focused on the need for defending the 'sacred' Iranian Revolution that would eventually bring the 'hidden Imam' back.

In Britain, especially during the 1970's and 1980's, a vivid debate occurred within IR theory known as the 'English School', which recognized an escalation of the influence of the civilizational/religious nexus in the theory and practice of IR (Dunne 1999, pp. 418–19), challenging the absolutism of the Westphalian secular system. As we observed during the aforementioned period, the religious variable intersects and provides an essential framework of analysis (Omer n.d., p. 129). Therefore, what is at stake in this article is to keep track and explicate the itineraries of FCO interpretations relating to the rise of political Islam during the period of historical transformations in the Middle East. By doing so, our study tries to fill a missing part in the scholarship of British foreign policy, especially in a period of high Cold War tensions. After considering Britain's, the USSR's, and the US's early responses to political Islam, this paper's structure delves into the FCO's reactions to the emergence of Islamism. The points addressed reveal the growing tensions between approaches related to Britain's interests, the Cold War political polarization, and the evident growing influence of cultural history in foreign policy.
