About the Journal

About the Journal

Legion: Journal of Religion and Regional is a peer-reviewed academic journal devoted to the study of religion in relation to regional and international dynamics across diverse socio-cultural, political, historical, and geographical contexts. The journal is established as an interdisciplinary platform for examining how religion shapes and is shaped by regional formations, cross-border interactions, political authority, governance, identity, mobility, and public life.

Positioned at the intersection of international relations, regional studies, and the academic study of religion, Legion welcomes scholarship that approaches religion not only as a system of belief and practice, but also as a force in diplomacy, conflict, peacebuilding, law, social transformation, and transnational exchange. The journal is particularly interested in how religious actors, institutions, discourses, and networks influence regional and global processes, and how political, economic, and technological transformations in turn reshape religious life and authority.

The journal encourages theoretical and methodological diversity, including qualitative, quantitative, comparative, historical, ethnographic, textual, and mixed-method approaches. It values research that is conceptually rigorous, empirically grounded, and attentive to both local specificity and broader regional or international connections. Comparative studies, transregional perspectives, and context-sensitive analyses are especially welcomed.

Through its publications, Legion: Journal of Religion and Regional seeks to contribute meaningfully to scholarly debates in international relations, religious studies, and regional studies by advancing critical understanding of religion as a constitutive dimension of regional and global transformation. The journal aspires to serve as an important venue for research that deepens academic dialogue while also engaging wider questions of authority, governance, pluralism, mobility, conflict, and public order.

Focus and Scope

Legion: Journal of Religion and Regional publishes original research articles, critical essays, and theoretically informed studies on the relationship between religion, region, and international dynamics. The journal prioritizes contributions that offer conceptual, empirical, and comparative insight into how religion operates within regional settings, across borders, and through institutions, networks, and public spheres.

Religion, Regionalism, and International Relations

This area focuses on the role of religion in regional and international politics. Topics may include religion in foreign policy, religious diplomacy, soft power, regional order, conflict and peacebuilding, humanitarianism, migration, regional cooperation, and transnational religious movements.

Religion, Authority, and Governance

This section examines how religion shapes political authority, legitimacy, law, governance, and institutional life across regional contexts. Contributions may address state–religion relations, religious authority, moral regulation, decentralization, public policy, legal pluralism, and the role of religion in shaping public order and political legitimacy.

Mobility, Networks, and Transregional Religious Flows

The journal welcomes studies on the movement of religious actors, ideas, and institutions across regions and borders. Relevant themes include diaspora, pilgrimage, missionary activity, educational exchange, digital religion, transnational activism, and the circulation of religious authority through regional and global networks.

Religion, Identity, and Regional Society

This area addresses the relationship between religion and social life within regional formations. Topics may include communal identity, everyday religion, youth, gender, education, media, marketplace religion, cultural memory, and the role of religion in processes of social change and regional belonging.

Comparative Religion and Regional Transformation

This section encourages comparative and context-sensitive studies on how different religious traditions interact with regional histories, institutions, and contemporary transformations. Contributions may include comparative work on Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, indigenous traditions, and other belief systems in regional and transregional settings.