Lecture: The new geopolitics of faith

Speaker: Peter Mandaville

Professor of International Affairs, Schar School of Policy and Government; Director, AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies (ACGIS), George Mason University.

Abstract

Around the world today we see a trend whereby great powers—and those aspiring to that status—integrate religion and religious outreach activities into their foreign policy and external relations. Manifestations of this trend vary widely, from informal efforts to cultivate solidarity with global co-religionists by states whose history and identity are entangled with religion, to more direct deployment of religious institutions and actors in the service of specific foreign policy and national security objectives.

This talk will provide a broad overview of this “new geopolitics of faith,” drawing on recent examples from U.S., Chinese, Russian, Turkish, Saudi, and Emirati foreign policy. Through a global comparison of varying motivations, strategies, and practices associated with the deployment of what might be termed “religious soft power,” the presentation will reveal patterns, trends, and outcomes that will enhance our understanding of religion’s role in contemporary geopolitics.

About the speaker

Dr Peter Mandaville is Professor of International Affairs in the Schar School of Policy and Government and Director of the AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies (ACGIS) in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) at George Mason University. From 2024–25 he was appointed by the Biden-Harris White House to serve as the Director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and Senior Advisor for Faith Engagement at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). From 2022–24 he was Senior Advisor for Religion and Inclusive Societies at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).

His prior government experience includes serving as a member of the U.S. State Department's Policy and Planning Staff (2010–12) and as a Senior Advisor in the Secretary of State's Office of Religion and Global Affairs (2015–16). He has also been a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Pew Research Center, and has held affiliations with the RAND Corporation and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Mandaville is the author or editor of the books The Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power (2023), Wahhabism and the World (2022), Islam & Politics (Third Edition, 2020) and Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma (2001) as well as many journal articles, book chapters, and op-ed/commentary pieces in outlets such as Foreign Affairs, The Guardian, The Atlantic and Foreign Policy. He has testified multiple times before the U.S. Congress on topics including political Islam and human rights in the Middle East. His research has been supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Henry Luce Foundation.

About this event

This event is free to attend. We ask you to register so that we can manage capacity and event support. Registering will also enable us to send you a reminder.

This event is organised by the Cambridge Interfaith Programme in partnership with the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) at the University of Cambridge, and sponsored by the Cambridge Interfaith Knowledge Hub.

Thanks are due to Dr Sara Silvestri for her assistance in arranging this event. Silvestri is a member of the Cambridge Interfaith Research Forum. Her previous work with Dr Mandaville led to the creation of the Transnational Policy Network on Religion and Diplomacy.

Audit via livestream

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