Religious Freedom and National Security Policy

October 28, 2010
10:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. EDT
Location: Copley Hall Copley Formal Lounge Map

With the growth of religious pluralism on a global scale, freedom of religion has emerged as more than a fundamental human rights issue. It also intersects with other foreign policy challenges, including political, social, and economic development. One of the most important but most poorly understood connections is with national security.

Through the Luce/SFS Program on Religion and International Affairs, Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs held a symposium on religious freedom and U.S. national security policy. Questions addressed include: Why should national security specialists be concerned about religious freedom? Under what conditions might greater U.S. support for religious liberty abroad help to reduce political instability, religious radicalism, and terrorist violence? When, where, and why might an emphasis on religious liberty provoke negative reactions abroad that undermine American political and security interests? Might a wise and prudent religious liberty policy overcome such reactions and, if so, how?

The symposium discussed these and related questions in two sessions. The first session examined the presence/absence of religious freedom in U.S. national security policy in general, with a focus on the Obama administration's National Security Strategy document. The second session addressed the cases of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.

SCHEDULE

Panel 1: Religious Freedom in U.S. National Security Policy | William Inboden, Jennifer Marshall, Pauletta Otis, Eric Patterson

Lunch and Keynote Address | Rashad Hussain

Panel 2: Religious Freedom and National Security in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq | Touqir Hussain, Rebecca Johnson, Andrew Natsios, Knox Thames

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Rashad Hussain speaking at the podium.

Featured Participants

Rashad Hussain Toggle

About Rashad Hussain

Rashad Hussain serves as President Joe Biden's ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. In this role, he works as principal advisor to the secretary of state and advisor to the president on religious freedom conditions and policy. Hussain has previously served as President Obama’s special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference and deputy associate counsel to Obama, focusing on national security, new media, and science and technology issues.

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Other Participants

Touqir Hussain Toggle

About Touqir Hussain

Ambassador Touqir Hussain is a research fellow at George Washington University and adjunct professor at Georgetown University and University of Virginia. Hussain is a former senior diplomat from Pakistan, with expertise on issues including South Asian security, political Islam, terrorism, and U.S. relations with the Islamic world. Hussain held senior positions in the Pakistani Foreign Office, and served as the diplomatic advisor to the Pakistani Prime Minister from 1996 to 1998. He then served as Ambassador to Brazil (1990-1993), Spain (1993-1995), and Japan (1998-2003). He also served as a Senior Fellow at the US Institute of Peace from 2004 to 2005.

Touqir Hussain's Profile

William Inboden Toggle

About William Inboden

William Inboden is executive director of the William P. Clements, Jr. Center for National Security, associate professor in the LBJ School of Public Affairs, and distinguished scholar at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas-Austin. Inboden is a non-resident fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States and senior advisor with Avascent International. Previously he served as the Legatum Institute's senior vice president and senior director for the White House’s Strategic Planning on the National Security Council. Inboden also worked at the Department of State as a member of the Policy Planning Staff and special advisor in the Office of International Religious Freedom. He is the author of Religion and American Foreign Policy, 1945-1960: The Soul of Containment (2008) and Foreign Policy magazine contributing editor. From 2014 to 2016, he was an associate scholar with the Berkley Center's Religious Freedom Project. Inboden received his Ph.D., M.Phil., and M.A. degrees from Yale University and A.B. from Stanford University.

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Rebecca Johnson Toggle

About Rebecca Johnson

Rebecca Johnson is associate professor of national security affairs and dean of the Marine Corps War College at Marine Corps University. She is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy, where she teaches graduate courses on international ethics, religion and peacebuilding, and post-conflict reconstruction. Johnson has previously been a research fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. Her current research explores the ethical constraints on counterinsurgency, specifically how the obligation to honor the norm of noncombatant immunity influences soldiers’ moral responsibility in complex operations. This research marries Johnson’s previous training in transatlantic security and conflict in the Balkans with her interests in military ethics. Johnson holds a B.A. with honors from the University of Texas at Austin, M.Div. from Wesley Theological Seminary, and M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University.

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Jennifer Marshall Toggle

About Jennifer Marshall

Jennifer A. Marshall is vice president for the Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity and the Joseph C. and Elizabeth A. Anderlik Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, where she oversees research on issues ranging from marriage, life, and religious liberty to health, education, and welfare to the application of America’s founding principles to today’s challenges.

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Pauletta Otis Toggle

About Pauletta Otis

Dr. Pauletta Otis is a former professor of security studies at the Marine Corps University Command and Staff College. She has both theoretical and operational experience and expertise in sub-national violence. Otis has conducted research on issues concerning cultural factors that impact military strategy and operations, religious factors in violence, and irregular warfare/insurgency analysis. She previously served as senior research fellow for Religion in International Affairs at Pew Forum and was a tenured professor in political science and international studies at Colorado State University-Pueblo. She has also taught in the Joint Military Intelligence College and National Defense University's National Security Education Program. She has served as a member of the Defense Intelligence Advisory Board, Defense Science Policy Board Summer Study on Homeland Security, and in a senior advisory capacity for the U.S. military chaplains. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Denver, as well as an M.A. from the University of Southern Colorado.

Pauletta Otis's Profile

Eric Patterson Toggle

About Eric Patterson

Eric Patterson serves as president of the Religious Freedom Institute and is a research fellow with the Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. He previously served as dean of the School of Government at Regent University, and before that, as associate director at the Berkley Center. He is an expert in two overlapping areas: the ethics of war and peace, and global religious trends and religious freedom policy. These two areas routinely intersect, such as in building post-conflict systems that represent diverse ethnoreligious factions, understanding the religious factors in conflict, and measuring U.S. democracy promotion efforts. His government experience includes time at the U.S. State Department, service as a White House Fellow, and over 20 years as an Air National Guard commander. He is the author or editor of 20 books, including Politics in a Religious World: Toward a Religious Informed U.S. Foreign Policy (2011).

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Related Publication

Report October 28, 2010

Report of the Georgetown Symposium on Religious Freedom and National Security Policy

This report outlines an October 2010 meeting of scholars and policymakers at Georgetown University which explored the relationships between religious freedom and national security.

Berkley Center