October 10, 2008
The Future of U.S. Religious Freedom Policy: Recommendations for the New Administration
The Berkley Center hosted the third of three symposia commemorating the tenth anniversary of the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Act in October 2008. Panelists addressed U.S. IRF policy as it relates to democracy promotion, civil society, religion-based terrorism, law (domestic and international) and public diplomacy. The previous two symposia, on the origins of the Act and its implementation, were held in February and April 2008. The series culminated in a brief, "Recommendations for the Obama Administration," that was distributed widely within the policy community during the first half of 2009. The seminars and the publication were supported by the Luce/SFS Program on Religion and International Affairs and co-sponsored by the Institute for Global Engagement. The John Templeton Foundation provided additional funding.
Symposium Agenda
Opening Remarks
Thomas Banchoff, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs
Chris Seiple, Institute for Global Engagement
U.S. International Religious Freedom Policy and Religious Extremism
Rick Santorum, Ethics and Public Policy Center
William Schulz, Center for American Progress
Moderator: Chris Seiple, Institute for Global Engagement
U.S. International Religious Freedom Policy and Public Diplomacy
William A. Galston, The Brookings Institution
Jennifer Marshall, The Heritage Foundation
Moderator: Dennis Hoover, Institute for Global Engagement
Break
U.S. International Religious Freedom Policy and Democracy
Marc Plattner, National Endowment for Democracy
Daniel Philpott, University of Notre Dame
Moderator: Thomas Farr, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs
Working Lunch
U.S. International Religious Freedom Policy and Civil Society
Andrew Natsios, Georgetown University
Elizabeth Prodromou, Boston University
Carroll Bogert, Human Rights Watch
Moderator: Mark Silk, Leonard Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life
Break
U.S. International Religious Freedom Policy and the Law
T. Jeremy Gunn, American Civil Liberties Union
William L. Saunders, Jr., Family Research Council
David Saperstein, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Hadley Arkes, Amherst College
Moderator: Cole Durham, International Center for Law and Religion Studies
Co-sponsors of the seminar series included:
International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University
Council for America's First Freedom, Richmond, Virginia
Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington DC
Religious Liberties Practice Group of The Federalist Society, Washington DC
Leonard Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, Hartford, Connecticut
Human Rights Watch, New York, NY
Council on Foreign Relations, New York, NY
Featuring
Thomas F. Farr is Director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and a Visiting Associate Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. A former American diplomat and leading authority on international religious freedom, Farr has published widely, including "Diplomacy in an Age of Faith" in Foreign Affairs (March/April 2008), and World of Faith and Freedom: Why International Religious Liberty is Vital to American National Security (Oxford University Press, 2008). Farr received his BA in history from Mercer University, and his Ph.D. in modern British and European history from the University of North Carolina.
Participants
Hadley Arkes is the Edward Ney Professor of American Institutions at Amherst College and a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Pubic Policy Center in Washington, DC, an organization that promotes application of the Judeo-Christian tradition to critica...
Thomas Banchoff is director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, and Associate Professor in the Government Department and the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. His research centers on religious and ethical ...
Carroll Bogert is the Deputy Executive Director for External Relations for Human Rights Watch (HRW), where she has worked since 1998. She oversees the organization’s external relations and runs the communications department, publicizing the ...
W. Cole Durham, Jr. is the Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, a research center based at Brigham Young University, where he is also the Susa Young Gates University Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School....
Thomas F. Farr is Director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and a Visiting Associate Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Ser...
William A. Galston holds the Ezra Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program, where he serves as a Senior Fellow. He is also College Park Professor at the University of Maryland. Prior to January 2006 he was Saul Ste...
Jeremy Gunn is Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Project on Freedom of Religion and Belief, which was founded in 2005, and a Senior Fellow for Religion and Human Rights at Emory Law School. He has also served as a Senior Associate a...
Dennis Hoover is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Institute for Global Engagement, serves as Executive Director of the Council on Faith & International Affairs (CFIA), and is editor of CFIA's journal, The Review of Fa...
The Director of Domestic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, Jennifer A. Marshall oversees research in education, marriage, family, religion, and civil society. Marshall directs the think tank's DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society a...
Andrew Natsios, Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy and Advisor on International Development in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, is a leading practitioner in the field of development. He most recently served...
Daniel Philpott is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Philpott is the author of Revolutions in Sovereignty: How Ideas Shaped Modern Inter...
Marc F. Plattner is co-editor of the Journal of Democracy, vice-president for research and studies at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and co-director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies. He served as NED's direct...
Elizabeth Prodromou is an Assistant Professor of International Relations and Research Associate of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs at Boston University. She is the 2010-11 Vice Chair of the US Commission on International Relig...
Rick Santorum is a 2012 Republican presidential candidate and head of the political action committee America’s Foundation. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and he established and currently directs EPPC's Pr...
A lawyer and prominent Reform Jewish community leader, Rabbi David Saperstein is the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, DC. He also co-chairs the Coalition to Preserve Religious Liberty and serves on the boar...
William L. Saunders, Jr. is Senior Council at Americans United for Life and the former Director of the Family Research Council's Center for Human Life and Bioethics. He is Chairman for Religious Liberty at the Federalist Society and a member of th...
William Shulz is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where his work focuses on human rights and public policy. He was formerly the Executive Director of Amnesty International, USA and president of the Unitarian Universalist Associ...
Chris Seiple is President of the Institute for Global Engagement. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (Philadelphia), a member at the Council on Foreign Relations (New York), a member of the International Institute ...
Mark Silk is Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College (Hartford, CT), the founding director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, and founding editor of Religion in the News and religion...