CIAO DATE: 02/2014
December 2012
President Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech and Secretary Clinton’s 2012 speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace persuasively argued for policies that promote international religious freedom (IRF), including links to national security, economic development, and democracy promotion, and as an antidote to religious extremism and terrorism. Unfortunately, current IRF policy––in place since 1998 and largely built around the threat of economic sanctions which no administration has been willing to use––is not up to the challenges or the opportunities that President Obama and Secretary Clinton so eloquently identified. To correct that, the White House needs to embrace a leadership role, building an infrastructure and providing the necessary resources for a reinvigorated policy of new tools and strategies to thrive. The need is pressing.
Resource link: How to Promote International Religious Freedom: [PDF] - 127K