Religion, Terror, and Error: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Challenge of Spiritual Engagement: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Challenge of Spiritual Engagement

· ABC-CLIO
Ebook
283
Pages

About this ebook

This book describes how the United States can integrate religious considerations into its foreign policy, moving towards a new leadership paradigm that effectively counters the challenge of Islamist extremism.

How should the United States deal with the jihadist challenge and other religious imperatives that permeate today's geopolitical landscape? Religion, Terror, and Error: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Challenge of Spiritual Engagement argues that what is required is a longer-term strategy of cultural engagement, backed by a deeper understanding of how others view the world and what is important to them. The means by which that can be accomplished are the subject of this book.

This work achieves three important goals. It shows how religious considerations can be incorporated into the practice of U.S. foreign policy; offers a successor to the rational-actor model of decision-making that has heretofore excluded "irrational" factors like religion; and suggests a new paradigm for U.S. leadership in anticipation of tomorrow's multipolar world. In describing how the United States should realign itself to deal more effectively with the causal factors that underlying religious extremism, this innovative treatise explains how existing capabilities can be redirected to respond to the challenge and identifies additional capabilities that will be needed to complete the task.

  • A foreword by retired Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni, former Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Central Command, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, and member of the CSIS Smart Power Commission

  • Maps that show areas of interest discussed in the text

  • Epigraphs throughout the book to provide amplification of important insights

    • About the author

    Douglas M. Johnston, Jr., PhD, is president and founder of the Washington-based International Center for Religion & Diplomacy.

    Reading information

    Smartphones and tablets
    Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
    Laptops and computers
    You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
    eReaders and other devices
    To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.