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Governmentoutreach

Government Outreach


The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, with support from the Henry Luce Foundation and Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, has begun to engage with government learning institutions to improve their professional training offerings in critical areas where religious factors pervade international affairs. The Center is developing short courses in consultation with government partners based on current knowledge of religion, foreign policy, and global development. The first such collaboration, a three-day symposium for faculty at military staff- and war colleges, was held at National Defense University in June 2009.
The Center’s effort to provide resources for the professional training of diplomats, aid workers, and other foreign affairs specialists recognizes that U.S. government representatives are increasingly being called upon to build relationships in and with highly religious publics worldwide, but that traditional foreign policy and national security training has not focused on such issues. The Center, as well as the broader Georgetown community, has a rich cadre of specialists—many of whom have served in government or multilateral institutions—who can provide valuable expertise on the challenges and opportunities of interacting in religious international contexts. This initiative is a complex undertaking in its preliminary phase and necessitates close consultations with government learning centers such as the Foreign Service Institute and the eighteen mid- and senior-level military schools. Given the need for such a program, its potential long term payoff, and Georgetown’s assets, location, and institutional commitment to training tomorrow’s policymakers, this effort represents a tremendous opportunity.