Description

In 2015, diplomats from North America and Europe met informally in Washington, DC to discuss their interest in sharing experiences, ideas and strategies for working more effectively at the intersection of religion and foreign policy. Those conversations planted the seed for an HRLI discretionary grant to launch the Transnational Network on Religion and Diplomacy (TPNRD). While the initial focus was on religious literacy training for diplomats, the participants found that there were many areas where communication and coordination with counterparts in other foreign ministries were valuable, from conflict mediation to sustainable development.
An HRLI grant to Clare College in 2017 enabled the Network to hold regular meetings and to create the website Religion & Diplomacy for sharing resources within the diplomatic community and beyond. Our grant also supported an Advisory Council, distinguished policy-literate scholars who provide resources to, and learn from, the diplomats. Meeting concurrently with the diplomats, the Council serves as the diplomats’ portal into the scholarly community, recommending authors for commissioned policy reports and helping to disseminate TPNRD papers and other resources.
The Network currently includes participants from 16 foreign ministries, the United Nations, and the European Union; 8 Advisory Council members; and a Secretariat. It has been influential in generating cross-country collaborations, including the 2019 launch of the European Union’s Global Exchange on Religion in Society, and Swiss-U.S. co-sponsorship of a workshop with seven African countries on conflict prevention. A wide range of EU officials and TPNRD members have participated in trainings led by the Network’s co-chair in Brussels since 2015. Since the pandemic, these trainings have been held virtually; in June the topic was “State, Shared Citizenship, and Religious Belonging.”
TPNRD now requests Luce support to develop additional resources for diplomats and to engage with a broader global audience of practitioners, by increasing its presence on social media and creating new content on the Religion & Diplomacy website. This will include policy reports, an annual Strategic Note highlighting developments pertaining to the religious dimensions of foreign policy, a revised Handbook on Religion and Diplomacy, and journal articles in The Review of Faith & International Affairs. A small partnership fund will contribute to the cost of collaborative, cross-country initiatives. The Network will continue to convene twice yearly to build relationships, foster new projects and learning, and discuss commissioned papers. TPNRD anticipates that meeting costs will be covered by host governments, which are increasingly attuned to the importance of these issues. Network director Judd Birdsall observes that while TPNRD cannot take direct credit for the creation of specialized religious engagement units in foreign ministries, it is notable that since its launch, a number of participating ministries have created such units or new positions, including the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland and Italy.
“At our events and in our publications,” writes Birdsall, “we strive to arrive at a nuanced understanding of the complex, dynamic, and embedded role of religion in international affairs – and to encourage engagement based on a ‘rightsized’ understanding of the role of religious dynamics in particular contexts.” The TPNRD Secretariat, currently at the Cambridge Institute on Religion & International Studies at Cambridge University, UK, will move later this year to the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University. The Secretariat will continue to be directed by Birdsall, who previously served in the U.S. State Department Office of International Religious Freedom. TPNRD’s co-chairs are Merete Bilde, policy advisor at the European External Action Service of the European Union, and James Alexander, policy advisor in the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom. The Advisory Council is co-chaired by Peter Mandaville at George Mason University and Erin K. Wilson at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
The Berkley Center has played an important role in developing programs at the intersection of religion and public policy since the inception of the HRLI, and is well-positioned to host and enhance the work of the Network.Our grant would support salaries, advisors’ honoraria, commissioned reports, and a modest fund for partnerships.
Recommendation: That the Directors of the Henry Luce Foundation approve a three-year grant of $346,000 to Georgetown University, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs for support for the Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion and Diplomacy.