The Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power

Peter Mandaville is Senior Advisor for Religion & Inclusive Societies at the United States Institute of Peace and Professor of International Affairs in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. From 2015-2016 he was a Senior Advisor in the Office of Religion and Global Affairs at the U.S. State Department. Previous government experience includes serving as a member of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Policy Planning Staff from 2011 to 2012, where he helped shape the U.S. response to the Arab Spring.

• AcknowledgmentsList of Contributors1. Thinking about Religion and Religious Soft Power in International Relations and Foreign Policy Analysis Peter Mandaville and Jon Hoffman 2. Tragedy or Irony: Geopolitical Grand Narratives, Religious Outreach, and US Soft PowerPeter S. Henne and Gregorio Bettiza3.

Religious soft power is often alluded to but rarely clarified. This book changes things: the contributors focus on religious soft power in a number of theoretical and empirical contexts and collectively shed much light on the phenomenon. Henceforward, researchers and scholars will have a 'go to' book, to clarify what we mean when we refer to religious soft power. Highly recommended.