Considers the importance of culture in the operationalization of modernity by assessing the role of religion, beliefs and identity in social behaviors. Challenges the rational assumption to emphasize the behavioral aspects of intercommunal and international relations. Draws from various disciplines (sociology, evolutionary psychology, social and political psychology) to examine identity-based conflict as well as the xenophobic responses to the emergence of a global, modern identity. Cases generally drawn from the Islamic world and its peripheries, but within a vast comparative reach. (This is a cross-listed course offered by the Middle East Studies Program that also can fulfill a requirement for the Global Theory and History Program.)