DOD Strategic Religious Engagement: A Luxury or a Necessity?

Abstract

Recent worldwide events underscore the urgency of formulating U.S. foreign policy that takes account of the motivations of religious actors. The inability of the government to sufficiently integrate credible religious engagement into its diplomatic tool kit will damage its foreign policy efforts and endanger the security of the nation. Strategic religious engagement is not a luxury the U.S. can afford to ignore. Instead, it is a critical, but often neglected, component of U.S. foreign policy that has great potential to shape and deter conflict. The Geographical Combatant Command is one element of national power that is uniquely organized and well-prepared to conduct religious engagement along tense, international religious fault lines. This paper explores how, in a season of declining resources, the U.S. Government can leverage the Combatant Command s diplomatic and informational strengths to build trust, marginalize religious extremism, and keep minor regional friction points from exploding into major issues.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA589211

Entities

People

  • Todd W. Ferry

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Combatant Commanders
  • Department Of State
  • Foreign Policy
  • Foreign Relations
  • Globalization
  • Governments
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Sociopolitics
  • Students
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States European Command
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.
  • Strategic Security Studies