November 3, 2009

Symposium on Religion & Democracy in the Foreign Policy of the Obama Administration

The day-long event consisted of four panels, each of which examined the question of religion and democracy in U.S. foreign policy from a different perspective. The panels addressed the role of religious actors in U.S. democracy programs and policies; the "twin tolerations" and democratic stability in highly religious societies; emerging trends in the data concerning the relationships between religion and democracy; and the relationship between Islam and democracy in key Muslim countries.

The conference is made possible through the support of the Luce/SFS Program on Religion and International Affairs.

Symposium Agenda

9:00 am – Opening Remarks
Thomas Banchoff, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs

9:10 – 10:30: The “Twin Tolerations” As a Model for Foreign Policy Thinking
Alfred Stepan, Columbia University
Jean Bethke Elshtain, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs
Timothy Samuel Shah, Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, Boston University
Moderator: Thomas Farr, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs

10:45- 12:00: New Trends in the Data on Religion and Democracy
Brian Grim, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
Harris Mylonas, George Washington University
Daniel Philpott, University of Notre Dame
Moderator: Allen Herztke, University of Oklahoma and Guest Scholar, Brookings Institution

12:15 – 1:00: Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar

1:15 – 2:45: Religion and Democracy Promotion in the Obama Administration
Gerald Hyman, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Thomas Melia, Freedom House
Daniel Brumberg, Georgetown University
Eric Patterson, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs
Moderator: Jennifer Marshall, The Heritage Foundation

3:00 – 4:30: Thinking About Islam and Democracy
Hassan Abbas, Harvard University
Emile Nakhleh, Former Senior Intelligence Officer
Jennifer Bryson, Witherspoon Institute
Moderator and Discussant: Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs

Thomas F. Farr, a former American diplomat, is Visiting Associate Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He is also Senior Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, where he directs the Religion and US Foreign Policy Program. A leading authority on international religious freedom, Farr has published widely, including "Diplomacy in an Age of Faith" in Foreign Affairs (March/April 2008), and World of Faith and Freedom: Why International Religious Liberty is Vital to American National Security (Oxford University Press, 2008). Farr received his BA in history from Mercer University, and his Ph.D. in modern British and European history from the University of North Carolina.

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