Religion & Foreign Policy | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: There is no religious element in policy development - nothing akin to the tool of Net Beneift (aka Cost Benefit) Analysis. If it is sought deliberately, it is part of a constituency analysis (like what will the Catholic bishops think of it and can we get them to start a War on Women - check). Policy is developed by those who are demanding change. Most of these are religious at some level and some of the most intense advocacy comes from religious actors - from Rev. Dr. Martin Luthor King to Cardinal Dolan. Some catch fire and some are seen as political pawns (I will let the reader judge which this applies to). On second though, Dolan is pawn, pure and simple. Sometimes, religious acts shoot weapons, think al Queda or the Aloites in Syria. The Christian religious usually does not have an armed faction, though it may support one - like the Aloites for Fatah.
As far as training leaders and bureaucrats, the best course to deal with religion is history - certainly not theology or some watered down version. If you really want it in the diplomatic corps, add religious history questions to the Foreign Service Exam - future SFOs will then beg for these courses. Since I suspect those questions are already there, the problem is not the bureaucrats at all - its the appointed leaders - who don't require any kind of training anything. Maybe THAT is the problem.
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