Berkley Center

The Strategic Religious Engagement Hub is an initiative dedicated to preserving and strengthening the United States government’s capacity for strategic religious engagement (SRE) in the contexts of diplomacy, development, and defense. 

Defined as efforts by U.S. government foreign policy and national security agencies to engage and partner with religious actors, SRE capabilities have been cultivated and institutionalized over the last several decades—most extensively within the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of State, and the Department of Defense, as well as related public institutions such as the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). However, due to recent broad administrative restructuring across the federal government, the SRE infrastructure within the U.S. government has largely been lost.

The hub seeks to preserve the U.S. government’s capacity for SRE in the years ahead through dedicated efforts to:

• maintain institutional memory; 

• collect and curate relevant SRE documents; 

• convene practitioners, scholars, and current and former officials to chart the future of SRE; and 

• explore innovative pathways for SRE initiatives moving forward.

By sustaining this critical capacity, the SRE Hub supports the U.S. government’s ability to navigate the complex role that religion plays in global affairs and to effectively engage religious actors in advancing diplomatic, development, and defense priorities.

Hosted by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University the SRE Hub is generously supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.