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Religion has a perennial political dimension. Never mere abstract belief, it has always shaped ethical stances and and collective identities. Still, the resurgence of religion in world politics since the end of the cold war took most observers by surprise. Not only has religion not faded in importance, as many had long predicted. It now intersects with foreign policy and political agendas across a range of issue areas. The research, teaching, and outreach activities of the Berkley Center focus on four topics at the intersection of religion and global policy challenges: diplomacy and transnational relations; global development; democracy and human rights; and interreligous dialogue.
At the Center
Thomas Farr Joins Center as Visiting Professor
Thomas Farr joined the Berkley Center and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service as a Visiting Professor within the Luce/SFS Program on Religion and International Affairs. Farr is one of the world's leading experts on the global politics of religious freedom. He served as the first Director of the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom from 1999-2003, and is now completing a book, World of Faith and Freedom: Why Religious Liberty is Vital to American National Security in the 21st Century, to be published by Oxford University Press.
At Georgetown, Farr is teaching two courses and organizing a seminar series on the "Religious Sources of Foreign Policy" in the US and around the world. A career diplomat with a long history of distinguished service, Farr has taught both at West Point and at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He received his PhD in History from the University of North Carolina.
States and national interests still dominate world politics. In the context of globalization, however, religion is increasingly shaping world affairs at the level of issues, identities, and action. Center programs focus on religious sources of foreign policy and the transnational interaction of religious groups with one another, the wider society, and the international state system. 
Solidarity with the poor is a commitment widely shared across the world's major religious traditions. In the context of globalization, religious communities have emerged as critical players in global development policy. Center programs explore the global impact of religion in a world marked by tremendous economic transformation and peristent social inequality.
Democracy and human rights are bound up with basic questions of human dignity, equality, and freedom -- ideals espoused today by the world's major religious communities. Center programs examine the ongoing struggle within and across religious traditions over the meaning of those ideals and how best to realize them at the level of civil society, the state, and the international community. 
Globalization has brought the world's religious traditions into closer contact with one another, generating friction and misunderstanding as well as opportunities for dialogue and collaboration. Center programs support interreligious understanding by promoting knowledge about diverse traditions and convening dialogue among their members -- and with the wider society.