Berkley Center

In this article published in First Things, Thomas Farr elucidates the serious harm done by America's failure to implement the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). Farr notes the internal improvements that the IRFA has brought to the US State Department, but he points out the systematic failure of three administrations to integrate the IRFA into foreign policy and how this failure has harmed America's foreign policy related to several key countries. Farr argues that the changes he recommends could impact American foreign policy overnight by adding the crucially missing element of religious freedom to the way in which we approach our interests in other nations, particularly in the Middle East.