Before becoming visiting associate professor of religion and international affairs at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and senior fellow at the Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, Thomas Farr spent twenty-one years in the American Foreign Service. Farr's book and the arguments it sets forth are in many ways an appeal to those in that service. Prior to leaving it, he was the US State Department's first director of the Office of International Religious Freedom. His book addresses the challenges presented by the early attempts of the new office to craft and implement a solid religious-freedom policy “in one of America's most avowedly secular institutions” (ix). One of Farr's chief concerns is to emphasize the extent to which the “infelicitous soil at Foggy Bottom” reflects an approach to the issue of religious freedom that exhibits a “dangerous disarray and confusion,” which threatens the very American security and well-being it is supposed to promote and protect.

Farr rejects as tendentious and ahistorical arguments he sees as common within the foreign-policy establishment, that all religion is toxic to the liberal project, as well as that it was Enlightenment rationalism, not religion, that made liberal democracy possible because it banished religion from the public square. In Farr's version of history, religion was not a private matter to America's founding generation but a natural, powerful pursuit that, properly channeled, could benefit the individual and the common good: “Religion could sanction ideas of ordered liberty, justice, and equality and, in short, become the very engine of a liberal political order” (xi). Farr contends that the modern interpretation of the “wall of separation” to which, in his view, “official America” adheres prevents the nation from engaging with and influencing the world's religious traditions. In Farr's interpretation of global developments, religion will, for the foreseeable future, have a significant and increasing impact on public matters in every region of the world, meaning that official American understanding of the world, and its responses to it, must integrate religious beliefs and behaviours on a global scale. Farr is adamant that American society has succoured a secularist diplomatic culture that is ill-prepared to address a world of public faith. He considers American diplomacy to have been largely passive and ineffective in its engagement with an international order influenced by faith. Nonetheless, despite what he perceives to be difficult-to-remedy deficiencies, Farr contends that “a potentially effective and even potent vehicle” resides in America's existing statutory policy of promoting international religious freedom. To be truly effective it will require proper support: “new policy mandates from a president, the urging of Congress, a determined secretary of state, strongly supportive appointees at Foggy Bottom, and new training, incentives and career opportunities for America's diplomats.” Above all, it needs a transformation in current attitudes, with new perspectives adopted toward religion and foreign policy and fresh thinking about the relationship between freedom and religion, particularly in those institutions that educate and train American diplomats. Farr's book is intended “to assist in that worthy enterprise” (12).

Unsurprisingly, Farr deals at some length with America's interaction with Islam. Rather than worrying whether US foreign policy has exacerbated Islamist terror, which it all too clearly has, Farr contends that a more important concern “is how to influence the religious war currently taking place within Islam over its meaning and its future” (10, original emphasis). Although friends and foes of US foreign policy alike might counsel caution about any American intervention in such a sensitive and complex area, Farr's stark commentary on the mistaken assumptions and approaches adopted by the State Department and key administration personnel in their dealings with the Islamic world show that he is well aware of the difficulties inherent in any such undertaking. Hence, whilst the solutions Farr proffers will undoubtedly be contested, perhaps even dismissed as overly optimistic, they are at least informed and, in the context of the failed policies on offer to date, at least merit a read.

The main thrust of Farr's advocacy of America's promoting religious freedom is that religious liberty renders democracy more stable by encouraging religious individuals and communities to contend within the political order rather than resort to coercion or violence. Farr argues that key to a refurbished American engagement with a world of faith must be the promotion of religious freedom properly understood, meaning, most importantly, the right to influence public policy within similar limits applicable to other groups and individuals in civil society:

This is a book of caveats, assumptions and interpretations that will undoubtedly be contested from many quarters. For example, the insistence on the secular nature of the State Department and the absence of religion from American diplomacy will certainly be challenged by contributors to and readers of Diplomatic History, which in recent years has presented a plethora of articles dealing with the extensive and diverse considerations accorded religion by the makers of America's foreign policy. Nor will it accord with the views of William Inboden, previously a senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council at the White House, who also worked at the State Department as a member of the Policy Planning staff and, most importantly, in the Office of International Religious Freedom. Inboden specifically addresses religion and American foreign policy in a book devoted to an examination of how religious ideas and values shaped the worldviews of American leaders. He points in particular to NSC-68, one of the seminal manifestos of the Cold War, written to be read only by policymakers at senior levels, but which “reads in parts more like a sermon than a policy blueprint.”Footnote ¹

Although Farr makes some robust and telling criticisms of religion and the conduct of the United States in the international arena, he writes from a broadly Christian and pro-American perspective, careful always to stress that his proposals are a means of furthering American interests. His presentation of American democracy will be too rosy for some, as will his claim that an inherent feature of US foreign policy is the promotion of freedom and democracy. And even amongst those that do accept the latter claim, there is no guarantee they will also accept Farr's insistence that any strategy designed to advance democracy must also advance religious freedom. Having said which, this remains a book that will be of interest to a range of readers. It tells the relatively unknown story of how the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 came about, as well as the subsequent struggles of the office it established and the work it undertook – deeply fascinating for any student of American politics. Moreover, in addition to Farr's insider accounts about today's Foreign Service, his extensive knowledge of religion and his ideas of how the two can be of benefit to each other, he writes from sincere and compelling convictions. An ideal book to provoke student discussion, this brings to the table some alternative perspectives and notable insights into American history, religion, politics and foreign policy.