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This day-long event consisted of four panels, each of which examined the question of religion and democracy in U.S. foreign policy from a different perspective. The panels addressed the role of religious actors in U.S. democracy programs and policies, the "twin tolerations" and democratic stability in highly religious societies, emerging trends in the data concerning the relationships between religion and democracy, and the relationship between Islam and democracy in key Muslim countries.

The conference was made possible through the support of the Luce/SFS Program on Religion and International Affairs.

Symposium Agenda

9:00 am Opening Remarks
Thomas Banchoff, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs

9:10-10:30: The "Twin Tolerations" As a Model for Foreign Policy Thinking
Alfred Stepan, Columbia University
Jean Bethke Elshtain, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs
Timothy Samuel Shah, Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, Boston University
Moderator: Thomas Farr, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs

10:45-12:00: New Trends in the Data on Religion and Democracy
Brian Grim, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
Harris Mylonas, George Washington University
Daniel Philpott, University of Notre Dame
Moderator: Allen Herztke, University of Oklahoma and Guest Scholar, Brookings Institution

12:15-1:00: Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar

1:15-2:45: Religion and Democracy Promotion in the Obama Administration
Gerald Hyman, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Thomas Melia, Freedom House
Daniel Brumberg, Georgetown University
Eric Patterson, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs
Moderator: Jennifer Marshall, The Heritage Foundation

3:00-4:30: Thinking About Islam and Democracy
Hassan Abbas, Harvard University
Emile Nakhleh, Former Senior Intelligence Officer
Jennifer Bryson, Witherspoon Institute
Moderator and Discussant: Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs

Featuring

Thomas Farr

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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

Hassan Abbas

Hassan Abbas is Quaid-i-Azam Chair Professor at Columbia University's South Asia Institute. He is also a Senior Advisor at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, after...

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory University, where he focuses on cross-cultural human rights issues, with an emphasis on Islam. He is also a faculty member of the Emory College of Arts and Sciences and...

Jose Maria Aznar

José María Aznar is the former Prime Minister of Spain, a position he held from 1996–2004; he was chair of Partido Popular from 1990-2004. He is currently the President of FAES (Foundation for Social Studies and Analysis), founding chairman of the...

Daniel Brumberg

Daniel Brumberg is an Associate Professor of Government and Co-Director of Democracy and Governance Studies at Georgetown University. He also serves as Acting Director of the United States Institute of Peace's Muslim World Initiative, where he...

Jean Bethke Elshtain

Jean Bethke Elshtain is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago, where she also has appointments in Political Science and the Committee on International Relations. Her works have focused...

Brian Grim

Brian J. Grim is Senior Researcher and Director of Cross-National Data at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and a principle investigator for the International Religious Demography Project at Boston University's Institute on Culture, Religion...

Allen Hertzke

Allen Hertzke is Presidential Professor of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma. He has written extensively on religious advocacy in politics, and in particular faith-motivated activism in foreign policy. He is the author of Freeing God...

Gerald F. Hyman

Gerald F. Hyman is a Senior Adviser and President of the Hills Program on Governance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He provides assistance to the Hills-affiliated network of centers in Asia, Latin America, and Africa,...

Jennifer Marshall

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...

Thomas Melia

Thomas O. Melia is Deputy Assistant Secretary in the US State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor since August 2010. He came to State after serving as Deputy Executive Director of Freedom House since May 2005. He was...

Harris Mylonas

Harris Mylonas is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. His book The Politics of Nation-Building: The Making of Co-Nationals, Refugees, and...

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November 2, 2009

Symposium on Religion & Democracy in the Foreign Policy of the Obama Administration

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