Judd Birdsall on Religious Literacy and National Security

Georgetown University Professor Judd Birdsall spoke on November 1, 2024 at IRD’s annual Christianity and National Security Conference in Washington, D.C. Birdsall connects religious literacy with foreign policy and national security. Video of his presentation is below from the Providence YouTube channel.

Birdsall (PhD, University of Cambridge) is Assistant Professor of the practice in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University, where he is also a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the project director of the Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion and Diplomacy (TPNRD). From 2011 to 2020 Birdsall was based at Cambridge University, where he earned his Ph.D., founded a research center on religion and international studies, and served as an affiliated lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies.

Prior to his time at Cambridge, he served in the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom and on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff. Birdsall is the editor of Religion & Diplomacy, and his work has appeared in the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Guardian, Huffington Post, Christianity Today, and Religion & Politics. He is also a senior editor and a frequent contributor at the Review of Faith & International Affairs.