The politics of religion at home and abroad

We apply for support from the Luce Foundation’s Religion & International Affairs Initiative to undertake a three-year collaborative research project entitled “The Politics of Religion at Home and Abroad.” This collaborative research project will build on the very successful and productive 2011-14 Luce-funded Politics of Religious Freedom project, and on themes explored in the Luce-supported “Thinking about Religion, Law & Politics” preliminary workshop held at Northwestern in Fall 2014. “At Home and Abroad” examines the very particular complex of religion, law, and politics at the dynamic pivot between the domestic and the international in a time when the political role of religion is under renewed scrutiny and the nature and the role of the nation-state is under radical revision. The project will study the politics of religion from an “inside/outside” vantage point in order to better understand the symbiotic relation between US domestic and foreign policy, past and present, with regard to religion and religious governance.