My research focuses on how religion motivates and influences political action.  In my dissertation, I look at the influence of religion on foreign policy through a multi-method approach.   I am particularly interested in what I call “providential beliefs”, a special category of religious beliefs composed of adherents who believe both that God has a plan and that they have a role to play in bringing it about.

The concept of providential beliefs is applicable to a number of topics in political science. I am currently working on a project that examines the influence of providential beliefs on the foreign policy attitudes of Americans, and contributed a book chapter on religiously-motivated political violence in Iraq to “Religion, Conflict, and Military Intervention” (Durward and Marsden, eds., 2009).

I am also working with Amber Boydstun of the University of California Davis on a project to examine media and presidential frames of the war on terror. The use of religious rhetoric to discuss the war on terror is also of interest to me.

Please feel free to click around and make yourself at home. I unfortunately, don’t check in on my website very often, so if you would like to contact me, please send me an email at raglazier@ualr.edu.

Thanks for visiting!