FPIF's latest strategic focus zeroes in on the role of religion in global affairs. This fall, read about missionaries, monks, and the intersection of monotheism and modernity. Photo: T.C. Davis.
The Israel Lobby exists, Stephen Zunes reports, but has nowhere near the influence that Mearsheimer and Walt claim.
The Catholic Church in Latin America is no longer the only game in town, writes Phillip Berryman.
Missionaries are busy saving souls. But what else do they want to transform, John Feffer asks, and
are they standing with the powerful or the powerless?
Religion has permeated the history and politics of Pakistan. Now it's time, Najum Mushtaq argues, to keep religion out of it.
In The Story of Religion, Joe Volk asks whether religion can help us replace the narrative of "us versus them" with a more compelling story of peace.
Religious communities are beginning to address the connections between climate change and global justice, reports Cassandra Carmichael in Greening the Pews.
In Liberation Theology Lives On, Jason Rowe considers the political and social legacies of liberation theology in Latin America.
In Dancing in the Earthquake, Rabbi Arthur Waskow looks
at the ferment within the major U.S. religious communities as they struggle over Middle East policy.
It's a mistake for the U.S. government to ignore religion or promote it zealously. Scott Thomas offers
an alternative in How and Why to Promote Religion Overseas.
Kathy McNeely argues that faith-based activists should
take their inspiration from the story of Esther and pursue an inside-outside strategy to secure the
wellbeing of the vulnerable.
The Commission on International Religious Freedom, writes Patricia
M.Y. Chang, has provided tacit support for a dangerous turn in American foreign policy.
And, from Jon Basil Utley, a report on a powerful subset
of the Religious Right. Their message: the end is near. Their influence on U.S. foreign policy: considerable.
Religious faith and institutions can be positive factors in peacebuilding, writes Bridget Moix. But there are also many potential pitfalls.
Conn Hallinan argues that religion has long played a role in the West's relationship to the rest of the world, but more as a way to divide populations than convert them.
And Heather Wokusch describes how the Vatican and Washington have butted heads on several global issues, and how these conflicts are only multiplying.
Kyi May Kaung looks at the religious roots of the protest movement in Burma today.
Ira Chernus writes that Americans crave a foreign policy based on moral conviction. Neoconservatives have offered one version. The left must provide a different one.
Stephen Zunes reports on a meeting with Iranian president Ahmadinejad, whose inflammatory and religiously charged rhetoric has obscured the fact that Iran poses little threat to the United States.
And Gershon Baskin argues that Israel needs a new Zionism or it will lose all legitimacy.
