2004). However, with the fall of the Soviet Union, unilateralist anticommunism lost much of it relevance.
In the 1990s, concerns about international institutions came to the fore and led missionaries to increase
their attention on global affairs. Such concerns were rooted in a greater fear that the United Nations is
being used to advance a liberal social agenda that threatened to undermine America’s :universal
principles.” Another major foreign policy concern for the Christian right over the last decade has been
the issue of religious persecution, especially the persecution of Christians in China, Saudi Arabia, and
Sudan (Ponnuru 2001).
Neo-conservatives have served as a bridge between the missionaries and the hegemonists.
Probably the most important foundation for this relationship partnership is an uncompromising support
for the Likud Party’s vision of Israel’s interests vis a vie the Palestinian Authority. In the words of Irving
Kristol, “greater principles” have made “it necessary to defend Israel today, when its very survival is
threatened” (Kristol 2003).
In recent years, the missionaries have sought to build an international social conservative alliance,
uniting evangelicals, the Vatican, and even some Islamic groups against gay rights, family planning
measures, abortion, and feminism. As this social conservative alliance has made its voice heard at UN
forums and resisted UN initiatives, it has often used a strangely progressive language, defending third
world autonomy against the meddling of first world feminists and the international institutions that they
allegedly control. This international alliance has always been unstable since missionaries are highly
skeptical of Roman Catholicism and Islam.
Overall, missionaries contend that America has a special purpose. They believe that the US, as
led God, has a virtually messianic role to play, especially in the Middle East where Israel must be
supported. They place considerable faith in the unilateral exercise of American power grounded on
socially and culturally conservative themes that animate America’s interaction with the world.
Hegemonists
Although hegemonists have much in common with missionaries, they lack their ideological simplicity
and religious fervor. This group holds that the international scene has become more complex and difficult
19
Convention