Religion and Foreign Policy in the United States and Europe

Cosponsored with the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, German Marshall Fund, and The Transatlantic Council

Thursday, February 12, 2015  |  9:30 am  |  Glickman Conference Center, CLA 1.302EF

6ddb2450462828abf9aabc88d6bfb7fe

Oppressive governments and societies around the world challenge both the freedom of peoples to practice their faiths and the rights of women and sexual minorities to live as they wish.

European and North American societies have diverse attitudes towards secularism and religious freedom. Governments on both sides of the Atlantic are challenged by the question of how they should account for religion in their foreign policies, in the context of a world in which power is increasingly diffuse and non-Western and the salience of religion in political life is on the rise.

The Transatlantic Academy is a research institution devoted to creating common approaches to the long-term challenges facing Europe and North America. The Academy does this by each year bringing together scholars, policy experts, and authors from both sides of the Atlantic and from different disciplinary perspectives to research and analyze a distinct policy theme of transatlantic interest. This year, the Academy is examining the role of religion in politics and foreign policy in Europe and the United States, and its implications for the liberal order.

AGENDA

9:30 – 11:00am  Panel I – Transatlantic Academy

Michael Barnett, Senior Fellow – “Religion and Liberal Order”

Lucian Leustean, Senior Fellow – “Eastern Orthodoxy and Liberal Order”

Nora Fisher Onar, Fellow – “Turkey’s Geocultural Challenge”

11:00 – 11:30am  Large Group Discussion

11:30am  Break

1:30 – 3:00pm  Panel II – University of Texas

Sharyl Cross, “Religion and International Security: Exploring the Theory/Policy-Practice Nexus”

Mary Neuburger, “Believing Diplomats: American Protestant Missionaries and Diplomacy in Southeastern Europe, 1876-1947”

William Inboden, “Reinhold Niebuhr and the Transatlantic Relationship”

Jeremi Suri, Title TBD

3:00 – 3:30pm  Large Group Discussion

3:30pm  Closing Remarks/Thoughts