In this interview with Religion & Diplomacy editor Judd Birdsall, Elizabeth Prodromou discusses her new policy brief on “Diplomacy, Geopolitics, and Global Orthodox Christianity.” The historical significance and current presence of Orthodox Churches in locations of key competition between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Russia, and in the great power rivalries of the twenty-first century, raises important questions about the role and impact of Orthodox Churches in contemporary geopolitics. Kremlin-supported challenges by the Moscow Patriarchate to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the global leader of a unified Orthodox Church that endorses universal human rights and rule of law, have provoked intense ecclesiastical conflicts within Orthodoxy over institutional, normative, and material resources. Additionally, the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s decision establishing the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) positions Ukraine as an important Rorschach test for the Constantinople-versus-Moscow orientations of Orthodox Churches worldwide. Prodromou’s report was commissioned by the Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion & Diplomacy (TPNRD).
Elizabeth H. Prodromou is a visiting professor in the International Studies Program at Boston College. She is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. She has published a wide range of scholarly and policy-related work on the intersection of geopolitics, religion, and human rights, with particular focus on the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.