Undivine intervention: How social networks mediate the relationship between religious repression and political violence

A robust literature demonstrates a relationship between religious repression and political violence, but this research struggles to clarify the causal link between the two behaviors. Drawing on the relational turn in international relations, we argue that social networks remain an important but overlooked mechanism. Religious repression reduces social cohesion and weakens group leaders’ abilities to prevent tensions from spiraling into violence. We test this relational theory through a mixed methods approach. A parametric regression model for mediation analysis demonstrates that network effects explain part of religious repression's overall impact on civil war. A case study of Indonesia further corroborates our argument.