2007–2008 ANNUAL REPORT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs “At Georgetown University we have long recognized the necessity of building bridges of understanding between faiths and cultures. Through the Berkley Center, we bring together intellectual leaders and the public to provide knowledge, inform debate, and promote greater dialogue across religious traditions.” Georgetown University President Dr. John J. DeGioia CENTER HigHLigHTs ....................................... 2 COLLABORATiVE PARTNERs ............................... 3 PROgRAMs • RELigiOUs PluralisM ANd WORLd AffAiRs ......... 4 • GlobalizatiON, RELigiONs, ANd THE sECULAR ..... 8 • RELigiON ANd Us fOREigN POLiCy ................... 10 • THE CHURCH ANd iNTERRELigiOUs dialogUE ....... 12 • RELigiON, POLiTiCs, ANd Law ........................ 14 • RELigiON ANd Global Development ............... 16 UNdERgRAduate iNiTiatiVEs ............................. 18 DatabasEs................................................. 20 PEOPLE..................................................... 22 2007— 2008 ANNUAL REPORT 1 Center Highlights The force of religion in contemporary world affairs demands knowledge, dialogue, and action. Religion’s role in national and international politics remains poorly understood. Commu- nication across traditions is difficult. Yet religious communities have unmet potential in the struggle against violence, injustice, poverty, and disease around the world. Through research, teaching, and outreach activities, the Berkley Center builds knowledge, promotes dialogue, and supports action in the service of peace. The Center was created in the office of Georgetown’s President, Dr. John J. DeGioia in March 2006. It builds on Georgetown’s strengths: academic excellence; a Washington, DC location; international reach; and a Catholic and Jesuit tradition open to other faiths and the wider secular world. Collaboration among faculty, administrators, and students—and gener- ous support from William R. Berkley, a member of the University Board of Directors—has enabled the Center’s rapid growth. Associate Professor Thomas Banchoff (Department of Government and School of Foreign Service) is its founding director. The Center’s second year, 2007–2008, saw the development of six interconnected faculty- led program areas: Religious Pluralism in World Affairs (Thomas Banchoff); Globalization, Religions, and the Secular (José Casanova); Religion and US Foreign Policy (Thomas Farr); The Church and Interreligious Dialogue (Chester Gillis); Religion, Politics, and Law (Michael Kessler); and Religion and Global Development (Katherine Marshall). Faculty leaders in each area directed events, publications, and the development of web-based resources designed to increase our knowledge of religion and world affairs. Program highlights included: a December 2007 workshop in Doha, Qatar, that examined the role of faith-inspired organizations in the Muslim World, and a parallel workshop in June 2008 focused on such organizations in Europe and Africa. The Luce/SFS Program on Religion and International Affairs supported both workshops, as well as two major symposia to mark the tenth anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act, held in February and April 2008. Other milestones included an October 2007 Symposium on West and Islam relations that led up to the publication in January 2008 of Islam and the West: Annual Report on the State of Dialogue, a collaboration between Georgetown and the World Eco- nomic Forum. That same month the sociologist José Casanova, a leading expert on religion and globalization, joined the Center faculty as a senior fellow, and Abdulkarim Soroush, a world-renowned Muslim reformer, took up residence as a visiting fellow for the spring 2008 semester. During 2007–08, the Center produced two student-led publications—the first Junior Year Abroad Network report and an Undergraduate Fellows Report on religious lobbies and their role in US politics. 2 BERKLEy CENTER fOR RELigiON, PEACE, ANd WORLd AffAiRs AT gEORgETOWN UNiVERsiTy Collaborative Partners LUCE/SFS Program ON RELIGION AND International Affairs From 2006–08, the Berkley Center and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) collaborated in the implementation of a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation’s Initiative on Religion and International Affairs. The Luce/SFS Program on Religion and Inter- national Affairs convenes symposia and seminars that bring together scholars and policy experts around emergent issues. The program is organized around two main themes: the religious sources of foreign policy in the US and around the world, and the nexus between religion and global development. Topics covered in 2007–08 included the HIV/AIDS crisis, faith-inspired organizations in the Muslim world, gender and development, religious freedom and US foreign policy, and the intersection of religion, migration, and foreign policy. WORLD FAITHS DevelopmENT Dialogue The World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD) was established in 2000, at the initiative of James D. Wolfensohn, then President of the World Bank, and Lord Carey, then Archbishop of Canterbury. Its aim is to facilitate a dialogue, catalyze action on poverty and development among people from different religions, and improve communications between individuals and international development institutions. Since 2006, WFFD has been based at the Berkley Center under the direction of Katherine Marshall. Washington Post AND georgetoWn/on Faith Georgetown/On Faith, a partnership between the Berkley Center and Washingtonpost. Newsweek Interactive, is designed to provide knowledge and inform debate about religion, culture, and politics. Georgetown/On Faith enriches online conversations with university- based knowledge resources and engages Georgetown faculty—and students—in discussions beyond the classroom, through faculty blogs and interactive forums. Faculty blogs include The God Vote by Professor Jacques Berlinerblau, on the role of faith in the 2008 elections, and Faith in Action, by Professor Katherine Marshall, exploring the struggles, alliances, and common efforts of people of faith to address challenges of economic and social development at the local, national, and global levels. WORLD EconomIC FORUm In 2007–08, Georgetown University collaborated with the World Economic Forum to produce a report on the state of dialogue between the West and the Muslim World. Islam and the West: Annual Report on the State of Dialogue, released at the Forum’s annual meeting in Davos in January 2008, tracked dialogue efforts across a range of issue areas, including international politics, citizenship and integration, and economic and social development. President John J. DeGioia of Georgetown University served as lead author on the report and the Berkley Center and the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding provided research support for the project. 2007— 2008 ANNUAL REPORT 3 Religious Pluralism and World Affairs Unprecedented dialogue across religious communities is one of the hallmarks of the contemporary era. To be religious today is to be religious alongside other traditions. The program on Religious Pluralism in World Affairs, under the direction of Thomas Banchoff, addresses new patterns of interaction among religious and secular actors, both nationally and internationally. Through scholarship, seminars, and outreach, it promotes knowledge of diverse religious traditions and their role in world politics, joins those tradi- tions in dialogue, and generates resources for policymakers grappling with global policy challenges of diplomacy, democracy, and development. Faculty LEADER: THOmas BANCHOFF Thomas Banchoff is Director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, and Associate Professor in the Government Department and the School of Foreign Service. His research and teaching center on the politics of religious pluralism, both nationally and internationally. Banchoff is editor of Democracy and the New Religious Pluralism (Oxford University Press, 2007) and Religious Pluralism, Globalization, and World Politics (Oxford University Press 2008), and a forthcoming volume on Religion and the Global Politics of Human Rights. He is currently completing a manuscript on the religious and secular politics of embryo and stem cell research in Europe and the United States. Banchoff received his B.A. in History from Yale (summa cum laude) in 1986, an M.A. in History and Political Science from the University of Bonn in 1988, and a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton in 1993. Thomas Banchoff, Director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs International Prayer for Peace, April 26–27, 2006 4 BERKLEy CENTER fOR RELigiON, PEACE, ANd WORLd AffAiRs AT gEORgETOWN UNiVERsiTy Engaging CHINA: Intercultural AND INTERRELIGIOUS Dialogue The Berkley Center is helping to coordinate Georgetown’s growing engagement with China around questions of intercultural and interreligious dialogue. In February 2008, Georgetown signed a cooperative agreement with the Center for Religious Studies of State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) of the People’s Republic of China, the official interface for religious exchanges between various religious organizations in China and their counterparts in other countries. Under the agreement, Georgetown and the Center for Religious Studies will hold an annual meeting to foster dialogue around issues of religion, culture, and society. “Open discussion