Berkley Center

For the past five years, the Henry R. Luce Foundation and Georgetown University have been jointly exploring a vital but inadequately understood dimension of America’s international relations–the role of religion. The Luce/SFS Program on Religion and International Affairs, a collaboration between the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, has supported a wide range of teaching, research, and outreach activities. Our goal has been to provide the academic and policymaking communities with the tools they need to better navigate the intersection of faith with global policy challenges of diplomacy, development, democracy, and human rights.

A leading team of faculty has been a key to the program’s success. Katherine Marshall, leader of the World Bank’s initiatives on faith, ethics, and development before coming to Georgetown, and Thomas Farr, who previously served as the founding director of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, have directed the Luce-supported Religion and Global Development programs and US Foreign Policy and Religion, respectively. Eric Patterson, a former White House Fellow, has led our Government Outreach/ Short Courses for Policy Professionals program. A fourth area of Luce/SFS programming, the development of Religion and International Affairs Networks, has been headed by Center Director Tom Banchoff and José Casanova, a Senior Fellow and leading scholar on religion and globalization.

This report highlights major Luce/SFS activities of the past five years, including four new courses; 28 conferences, symposia, and seminars; 10 global workshops; 37 reports; 20 case studies; nine film guides; 40+ briefings for military and state department officials; 200+ practitioner interviews; and a suite of online knowledge resources.