Finding Faith in Foreign Policy

Religion and American Diplomacy in a Postsecular World

Gregorio Bettiza

Offers the most comprehensive explanation to date of why and how religion has become a systematic subject and object of U.S. foreign policy, since the end of the Cold War to the Trump Presidency
Focuses on four distinct religious foreign policy frameworks: International Religious Freedom, Faith-Based Foreign Aid, Muslim and Islamic Interventions, and Religious Engagement
Identifies how changes in American foreign policy are affecting religious landscapes globally and influencing policy agendas internationally

Finding Faith in Foreign Policy

Religion and American Diplomacy in a Postsecular World

Gregorio Bettiza

Description

Since the end of the Cold War, religion has become an ever more explicit and systematic focus of US foreign policy across multiple domains. US foreign policymakers, for instance, have been increasingly tasked with monitoring religious freedom and promoting it globally, delivering humanitarian and development aid abroad by drawing on faith-based organizations, fighting global terrorism by seeking to reform Muslim societies and Islamic theologies, and advancing American interests and values more broadly worldwide by engaging with religious actors and dynamics. Simply put, religion has become a major subject and object of American foreign policy in ways that were unimaginable just a few decades ago.

In Finding Faith in Foreign Policy, Gregorio Bettiza explains the causes and consequences of this shift by developing an original theoretical framework and drawing upon extensive empirical research and interviews. He argues that American foreign policy and religious forces have become ever more inextricably entangled in an age witnessing a global resurgence of religion and the emergence of a postsecular world society. He further shows how the boundaries between faith and state have been redefined through processes of desecularization in the context of American foreign policy, leading the most powerful state in the international system to intervene and reshape in increasingly sustained ways sacred and secular landscapes around the globe.

Drawing from a rich evidentiary base spanning twenty-five years, Finding Faith in Foreign Policy details how a wave of religious enthusiasm has transformed not just American foreign policy, but the entire international system.

Finding Faith in Foreign Policy

Religion and American Diplomacy in a Postsecular World

Gregorio Bettiza

_{List of Tables
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments}
1. Introduction
2. Theorizing U.S. Foreign Policy in a Postsecular World Society
3. International Religious Freedom
4. Faith-Based Foreign Aid
5. Muslim and Islamic Interventions
6. Religious Engagement
7. Conclusion
Appendix 1. Religious Foreign Policy Regimes' Norms, Ideas, Institutions, and Practices
Appendix 2. List of Interviewees
Bibliography
Index

Finding Faith in Foreign Policy

Religion and American Diplomacy in a Postsecular World

Gregorio Bettiza

Author Information

Gregorio Bettiza is Assistant Professor in International Relations at the University of Exeter. He received his PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 2012 and was Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy between 2012-14. Gregorio has also held Visiting Fellowships at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC in 2011 and 2017. His work has been published, among others, in the European Journal of International Relations, Review of International Studies, International Studies Review, International Studies Perspectives, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Oxford Bibliographies.

Finding Faith in Foreign Policy

Religion and American Diplomacy in a Postsecular World

Gregorio Bettiza

Reviews and Awards

Honorable Mention, 2020 Book Award International Studies Association's Religion and International Relations Section
Special Mention of Excellence for the 2019 Alberigo Awards from the European Academy of Religion

"Much-needed contribution to the field...Bettiza's creative theoretical approach presents a multi-layered lens with profound explanatory power" -- Ashlyn W. Hand, Journal of Church and State

"Gregorio Bettiza makes an illuminating contribution... Bettizas book is an insightful investigation into the causes, structures, and effects of the growing engagement of US policymaking with religion. It also offers a thoughtful analysis and critique of the religionization of international relations." -- Axel R. Schäfer, Religion, State & Society

"This is a big book with an important argument: ambitious, erudite, and presented with great clarity. Students of religion, foreign policy, and world politics will be thinking with it, and contesting it, for many years to come." -- Daniel J. Levine, Religions

"Finding Faith in Foreign Policy broadens our understanding of the relationship between religion and politics ... Bettiza's book opens up several exciting areas for future research." -- Alexandra Domike Blackman, Perspectives on Politics

"Few studies ... systematically analyze the connections between faith-based groups and US foreign policymaking. Finding Faith in Foreign Policy works to fill this gap, shedding light on the complex relationships between religion and US foreign policy initiatives." -- Nukhet Sandal, International Studies Review

"In Finding Faith in Foreign Policy, Bettiza definitively documents the proliferation of religion across the United States' diplomatic bureaucracy in recent decades." -- David Buckley, International Studies Review

"This is progress from the tendency in existing scholarship to focus on controversies over religious freedom." -- David Buckley, International Studies Review

"an enduring summation of trends within the American foreign policy bureaucracy from the Cold War's end to our current, unstable period of international order." -- David Buckley, International Studies Review

"...[A] rigorous, insightful and stimulating account of the contemporary role of religion in American policy formation." -- James L. Guth, Furman University, Politics, Religion & Ideology

"The first Appendix alone is worth the price of admission and makes Finding Faith in Foreign Policy a new standard reference in any work on religion in American diplomacy." -- Robert J. Joustra, Redeemer University College, The Review of Faith and International Affairs

"the book triggers important debates and paves the way for future research on the emergence of foreign policy regimes in other countries as well as their effects on the international politics of religion...it provides a valuable opportunity to reflect on the revival of religion in North America and on how religion, state and politics interact." -- Anne Jenichen, Politics, Religion & Ideology