US foreign policy has been significantly influenced by religious considerations over the past two decades, reflecting America’s complex relationship with faith in both domestic and international spheres. The interplay between religion and US foreign policy has evolved substantially since 2005, shaped by changing presidential administrations, global events, domestic political landscapes, and shifting religious demographics within American society. This comprehensive examination explores how religious factors have informed, challenged, and transformed US approaches to international engagement while simultaneously affecting domestic policy frameworks. Throughout this period, religious considerations have remained a consistent, though variably emphasized, element of American diplomatic strategy and national identity.
The Historical Foundations of Religion in U.S. Foreign Policy
The religious dimensions of US foreign policy can be traced back to the nation’s founding, despite the constitutional separation of church and state. America’s self-perception as having a special moral mission in the world has deep religious roots, influencing diplomatic approaches even before the modern era. This religious underpinning of American exceptionalism has persisted through various historical periods, creating a foundation for the more explicit religious engagement strategies developed over the past twenty years. While the First Amendment establishes that the country shall have no official religion, religious themes have nevertheless permeated American political discourse and policy formulation since the nation’s inception2.
The modern era of explicit religious engagement in US foreign policy began to take more formal shape in the early 2000s, setting the stage for the developments we’ve witnessed over the past two decades. Prior to this period, religious considerations in US foreign policy were often implicit rather than explicit, functioning as background cultural factors rather than formal policy elements. As global religious dynamics grew increasingly complex and influential in the late 20th century, US policymakers gradually recognized the necessity of developing more sophisticated approaches to religious engagement in international affairs. This recognition would crystallize more fully in the post-9/11 era, as religious factors became impossible to ignore in the formulation of effective US foreign policy responses to global challenges.
The Bush Administration: Faith-Based Initiatives and Post-9/11 Religious Dimensions
The George W. Bush administration marked a watershed moment in the explicit incorporation of religion into both domestic and foreign policy frameworks. Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, US foreign policy underwent a profound transformation that inevitably engaged with religious dimensions of international relations. The “Global War on Terror” launched in response to these attacks inevitably confronted questions about religious extremism, while simultaneously requiring the administration to carefully distinguish between Islam as a religion and the radical interpretations promoted by terrorist organizations. This delicate balancing act became a defining challenge for US foreign policy during this period.
Domestically, President Bush established the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which fundamentally altered the relationship between government and religious organizations in service delivery and social welfare programs6. This initiative reflected Bush’s personal religious convictions and his belief in the positive role faith communities could play in addressing social challenges. The establishment of this office represented an unprecedented level of formal government engagement with religious organizations and set a precedent that subsequent administrations would build upon in various ways.
In the international arena, the Bush administration’s approach to religious engagement was somewhat paradoxical. While the administration emphasized religious freedom as a foreign policy priority and initiated programs to engage religious actors in development and diplomacy, its approach to the War on Terror and interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan sometimes created tensions with religious communities both domestically and abroad. US foreign policy during this period struggled to reconcile security imperatives with respect for religious diversity and sensitivity to religious concerns. Nevertheless, the Bush era established important precedents for more systematic religious engagement in US foreign policy that would evolve under subsequent administrations.
The Obama Administration: Strategic Religious Engagement in U.S. Foreign Policy
The Obama administration built upon and formalized many of the religious engagement initiatives begun under Bush, while adjusting approaches to align with different policy priorities. In 2013, the administration adopted the “National Strategy on Integrating Religious Leader and Faith Community Engagement into U.S. Foreign Policy,” the first explicit strategy document of its kind1. This landmark initiative acknowledged the significant contributions religious leaders and faith communities could make to human rights, global health and development, and conflict mitigation, providing an interagency blueprint for more robust engagement with religious actors across a range of foreign policy and national security issues1.
President Obama maintained the faith-based initiatives of his predecessor, rebranding the office as the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, signaling a broader approach that emphasized inclusivity while preserving the core recognition of religious organizations’ importance in service delivery6. This represented continuity in the US foreign policy approach to religious engagement while expanding its scope beyond traditionally emphasized faith communities. The administration sought to develop more sophisticated engagement with diverse religious actors globally, recognizing their potential contributions to development, peacebuilding, and human rights advancement.
Religious affiliation significantly influenced public opinion about Obama’s foreign policy, particularly regarding the Middle East. Research from this period indicates that the “faith factor” was a powerful force driving American attitudes toward Obama’s international engagements, with seculars, mainline Protestants, and Catholics generally showing more support for his policies compared to evangelical Protestants3. This domestic religious divide had important implications for the administration’s ability to build consensus around its foreign policy initiatives and highlighted the complex interplay between religious identity and policy preferences in the American political landscape.
The Trump Administration: Realignment of Religious Priorities in U.S. Foreign Policy
The Trump administration marked another significant shift in the relationship between religion and US foreign policy, reorienting priorities and approaches to religious engagement both domestically and internationally. While maintaining formal structures for faith-based partnerships, the administration placed greater emphasis on religious freedom as a foreign policy priority, particularly focusing on the protection of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East and elsewhere. This approach reflected both domestic political considerations and genuine concern about religious persecution globally, though critics sometimes questioned the consistency of its application across different religious communities and geopolitical contexts.
Domestically, the administration cultivated strong relationships with evangelical Christian communities, which influenced its approach to various foreign policy issues including Israel-Palestine relations, international religious freedom advocacy, and engagement with Muslim-majority countries. The relocation of the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem represented a policy decision with profound religious symbolism and implications, highlighting how domestic religious constituencies can influence significant US foreign policy decisions. This period demonstrated the complex ways in which domestic religious politics can shape international engagement, particularly when religious identity is closely aligned with partisan political affiliation.
The Trump administration also emphasized religious liberty protections domestically, which had implications for how religious freedom was conceptualized and promoted in US foreign policy contexts. The focus on protecting the rights of religious organizations and individuals to operate according to their beliefs, even when those beliefs conflicted with other rights claims or policy objectives, represented a particular understanding of religious freedom that informed diplomatic approaches during this period. This understanding sometimes created tensions with international human rights frameworks that balance religious freedom with other rights considerations, illustrating the challenges of translating domestic religious policy preferences into effective US foreign policy strategies.
The Biden Administration: Rebalancing Religious Engagement in U.S. Foreign Policy
Upon taking office, the Biden administration sought to rebalance US foreign policy approaches to religious engagement, maintaining emphasis on religious freedom while reconnecting it more explicitly to broader human rights frameworks and multilateral cooperation. President Biden’s 2024 proclamation on Religious Freedom Day affirmed the constitutional right to practice faith peacefully and openly as “a core tenet of our democracy and helps us fulfill one of our highest aspirations as a Nation: to be a citadel of liberty and a beacon of freedom”5. This framing emphasized both the domestic and international dimensions of American commitments to religious freedom.
The Biden administration has continued substantial investment in protecting religious communities both domestically and internationally. Working with Congress, the administration secured “the greatest increase in funding in our history for the physical security of non-profits including churches, gurdwaras, mosques, synagogues, temples, and other places of worship,” and proposed further increases to $360 million in the 2024 budget5. This domestic commitment to religious community protection has paralleled international efforts, with the administration providing “more than $100 million to promote religious freedom and hundreds of millions more to provide humanitarian assistance to victims fleeing religious repression, including genocide”5.
In its approach to international religious engagement, the Biden administration has implemented a range of policy tools, including sanctions, visa restrictions, and export controls targeting actors responsible for religious persecution5. This multifaceted approach reflects an understanding of religious freedom as integral to broader US foreign policy objectives regarding human rights, security, and democratic values promotion. The administration has sought to build on the formal religious engagement strategies developed under Obama while addressing evolving challenges in a rapidly changing global religious landscape where key geopolitical competitors such as Russia, China, India, and Arab Gulf nations have increasingly integrated religion into their own foreign policies1.
Domestic Religious Trends and Their Impact on U.S. Foreign Policy
The past two decades have witnessed significant changes in America’s religious landscape, with important implications for both domestic and foreign policy. While America remains one of the most religious countries in the West, with about two-thirds of voters identifying as Christian, the nation has become notably less devout in recent decades4. The percentage of Americans identifying as Christian has declined from around 90% in the 1990s to significantly lower levels today, with more than a quarter of Americans now claiming no religious affiliation4. This demographic shift has created new political dynamics that influence US foreign policy formulation and implementation.
Religious affiliation has become increasingly aligned with political identity, creating distinct patterns of policy preferences that extend to international affairs. Research indicates that 70% of non-religious voters in America are more likely to vote Democrat, with even stronger alignment among agnostics (78%) and atheists (84%)4. Conversely, American Christians, including Protestants and Catholics, generally more strongly align with the Republican Party, though important exceptions exist along racial lines, with 84% of Black Protestants and 60% of Hispanic Catholics more likely to support Democrats4. These domestic religious-political alignments create complex constituencies with different foreign policy preferences and priorities.
Importantly, religious demographic changes are not uniform across the United States. In some states, particularly in the Bible Belt (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama), religious identification and practice are actually strengthening rather than declining4. This regional variation in religious trends creates different domestic political pressures on elected officials regarding US foreign policy priorities, particularly in areas where religious considerations intersect with international engagement, such as humanitarian assistance, religious freedom advocacy, and relationships with religiously-identified states and non-state actors.
Religious Freedom as a Cornerstone of U.S. Foreign Policy
Throughout the past two decades, religious freedom promotion has remained a consistent element of US foreign policy across administrations, though approaches and emphases have varied. As articulated in Biden’s 2024 proclamation, the United States has worked to “make it possible for people to practice their faith freely and peacefully around the globe” in response to a context where “billions of people worldwide are persecuted for or prevented from freely choosing, practicing, or teaching their faith”5. This commitment reflects America’s constitutional values regarding religious liberty and their projection into international engagement.
The institutional infrastructure supporting religious freedom as an element of US foreign policy has evolved significantly over this twenty-year period. The Office of International Religious Freedom in the State Department, established in 1998, has expanded its operations and influence, while the position of Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom has gained prominence in US diplomatic efforts. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan federal entity, has continued to monitor religious freedom conditions globally and make policy recommendations that influence US foreign policy approaches to countries of particular concern.
The methods employed to advance religious freedom have diversified over time, now encompassing diplomatic engagement, foreign assistance programming, sanctions regimes, and multilateral cooperation. Recent approaches have included denying “the entry of goods into the United States that are made with forced labor an abuse of human rights that is oftentimes associated with the genocide of religious minorities”5. These economic measures complement diplomatic efforts and reflect a growing understanding of the interconnections between religious freedom, human rights, and economic justice in effective US foreign policy.
The Evolution of Faith-Based Partnerships in U.S. Foreign Policy
The systematic engagement of faith-based organizations in implementing US foreign policy objectives represents one of the most significant developments of the past twenty years. Beginning with President Bush’s establishment of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and continuing through successive administrations, the United States government has increasingly recognized and formalized partnerships with religious organizations in addressing global challenges. This approach has recognized the unique capacities, local connections, and moral authority that faith-based organizations often possess in contexts where US foreign policy seeks to advance development, humanitarian, and peacebuilding objectives.
Under President Obama, these partnerships expanded significantly, with substantial resources directed toward faith-based organizations for various initiatives. For instance, at least $140 million in stimulus funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 went to faith-based groups for various domestic programs, demonstrating a continuation and expansion of Bush-era approaches6. Similar patterns of engagement occurred in international assistance programming, reflecting a bipartisan recognition of faith-based organizations’ value in implementing US foreign policy objectives effectively.
The Biden administration has continued this trajectory while emphasizing inclusive engagement with diverse faith communities. Current approaches to faith-based partnerships in US foreign policy reflect accumulated learning from twenty years of experimentation and evolution, recognizing both the potential benefits and challenges of working with religious organizations in complex global contexts. This evolution represents a significant institutional development in how US foreign policy engages with religious dimensions of international challenges and opportunities.
Religious Dynamics in U.S. Foreign Policy Toward the Middle East
Perhaps nowhere have the religious dimensions of US foreign policy been more evident or consequential than in engagement with the Middle East. Over the past twenty years, American approaches to this region have been profoundly shaped by religious considerations, both in terms of understanding regional dynamics and in terms of domestic political influences on policy formulation. Research has demonstrated that religious affiliation significantly impacts American public opinion about US foreign policy in the “Greater Middle East,” with seculars, mainline Protestants, and Catholics generally taking more moderate positions compared to evangelical Protestants3.
US foreign policy toward Israel-Palestine has been particularly influenced by religious factors, with evangelical Christian support for Israel representing a significant domestic political consideration across multiple administrations. The Trump administration’s decision to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem and recognize the city as Israel’s capital reflected this influence, while also generating controversy both domestically and internationally. Other religious dynamics, including concerns about Christian minorities in the region, the rise of political Islam, sectarian tensions, and religious extremism, have similarly shaped US foreign policy responses to regional developments.
The past twenty years have witnessed evolving US foreign policy approaches to engaging with religious actors in the Middle East, from the Bush administration’s post-9/11 efforts to distinguish between Islam and terrorism, to the Obama administration’s more systematic engagement with diverse religious leaders, to the Trump administration’s emphasis on protecting religious minorities, to the Biden administration’s efforts to integrate religious engagement within broader regional strategies. Throughout these evolutions, the religious dimensions of US foreign policy toward this critical region have remained unavoidable and consequential.
Domestic Religious Controversies and Their Foreign Policy Implications
Domestic debates about religion’s proper role in American society have inevitably shaped and constrained US foreign policy approaches to religious engagement. The First Amendment’s establishment and free exercise clauses create a constitutional framework that both separates church and state and protects religious freedom, generating ongoing tensions and debates about appropriate boundaries. Pew Research Center surveys indicate that “far more Americans support than oppose the separation of church and state, although there sometimes are divisions on these questions by political identity and religious affiliation”2.
Specific controversies have illuminated these tensions. The Johnson Amendment, which limits political activity by religious organizations, reflects one boundary that most Americans (70%) support, preferring that “churches and other houses of worship… stay out of politics”2. Similarly, Supreme Court rulings on religious expressions in public spaces, including the 1962 decision that it’s unconstitutional for teachers to lead classes in prayer at public schools, represent domestic religious policy frameworks that inevitably influence how US foreign policy approaches similar issues internationally2.
These domestic religious controversies and their constitutional resolutions create both opportunities and constraints for US foreign policy. They provide frameworks for advancing religious freedom globally based on American experience, but they also generate tensions when domestic religious constituencies advocate for foreign policy positions that may align with their theological perspectives but conflict with established constitutional principles or broader diplomatic objectives. The past twenty years have witnessed numerous instances of these tensions playing out in US foreign policy formulation and implementation across different regional and thematic contexts.
Challenges and Future Directions for Religion in U.S. Foreign Policy
As we look toward the future, several challenges and opportunities emerge regarding religion’s role in US foreign policy. First, America’s changing religious demographics will continue to reshape domestic constituencies’ foreign policy preferences and priorities. The growing segment of religiously unaffiliated Americans may push for different approaches to religious engagement internationally, potentially emphasizing broader human rights frameworks rather than specific religious freedom concerns. Simultaneously, the intensification of religious identification in certain regions and communities may strengthen advocacy for more explicit religious dimensions in US foreign policy.
Second, the global religious landscape continues to evolve rapidly, with significant implications for effective US foreign policy. The integration of religion into the foreign policies of key geopolitical competitors like Russia, China, India, and Arab Gulf nations requires sophisticated American responses that recognize religion’s strategic importance while maintaining principled commitments to religious freedom and pluralism1. The rise of religious nationalism in various contexts presents particular challenges for US foreign policy approaches that seek to advance both democratic values and religious liberty.
Third, technological changes are transforming religious expression, community formation, and extremism in ways that require adaptive US foreign policy responses. Social media platforms facilitate both positive religious engagement across boundaries and dangerous radicalization processes that can threaten security interests. Developing effective US foreign policy approaches to these complex religious dynamics in digital spaces represents a significant challenge for the coming decades.
Finally, finding domestic common ground on religious engagement in US foreign policy remains essential but increasingly difficult in a polarized political environment. As noted regarding international religious freedom policy, “widening domestic political divisions, which involve questions of religion, can complicate how the U.S. approaches religion in its external relations”1. Crafting bipartisan approaches to religious engagement that can sustain coherent US foreign policy across administrations represents perhaps the most significant challenge in this domain.
Conclusion: The Enduring Importance of Religious Engagement in U.S. Foreign Policy
The past twenty years have demonstrated conclusively that effective US foreign policy requires sophisticated engagement with religious dimensions of international affairs. From the formal strategies and institutions developed across administrations to the evolving approaches to religious freedom promotion and faith-based partnerships, American foreign policy has increasingly recognized religion’s significance in shaping global developments and addressing complex challenges. This recognition transcends partisan divides, though approaches and emphases have varied considerably across different administrations.
Looking ahead, US foreign policy must continue to develop nuanced approaches to religious engagement that reflect both America’s constitutional values regarding religious freedom and the complex realities of a world where religion remains a powerful force in politics, society, and individual identity. As President Biden affirmed in his 2024 Religious Freedom Day proclamation, “the work of protecting religious freedom is never finished,” and in our quest to build a more perfect Union, religious beliefs can “help us heal divisions and bring us together to safeguard this fundamental freedom guaranteed by our Constitution and to ensure that people of all religions or no religion are treated with dignity and respect”5. Applying these principles consistently and effectively in US foreign policy will remain both a significant challenge and an essential opportunity in the years to come.
The evolution of religion’s role in US foreign policy over the past two decades demonstrates the importance of institutional learning, strategic adaptation, and principled commitment in addressing one of the most complex dimensions of international engagement. As religious dynamics continue to shape global developments and challenges, America’s capacity to navigate these complexities effectively will remain a critical determinant of its foreign policy success and global influence. The foundations established during these past twenty years provide important building blocks for future approaches, though continuous innovation and adaptation will be necessary to address emerging challenges and opportunities at the intersection of religion and US foreign policy.
