The Most Recent: Three Things to Know About Religion and Foreign Policy in the United States

As religious actors frequently serve as an anchor for communities and hold a position of trust and influence, ignoring religious beliefs and leaders in U.S. foreign policy would mean ignoring a significant portion of what determines societies. In 2013, the White House unveiled the first-ever national strategy on the involvement of religious leaders and the faith community in American foreign policy. Some of the primary contributors to the plan were collected by USIP ten years later to reflect on the significance of long-term U.S. religious engagement overseas, the lessons gained from the previous ten years, and the reasons connections with religious actors are beneficial not only for U.S. national security but also for other factors.