Postsecular Expertise and American Foreign Policy Change

The past two decades, following the end of the Cold War and the events of 9/11, witnessed a growing interest in religion among American scholars and policy analysis that touches upon the broad field of international affairs. This interest is not only confined to the field of international affairs, but is a much wider phenomenon that cuts across disparate fields and disciplines – from philosophy, to the humanities, the natural sciences, and medicine – so much so, that John Schmalzbauer and Kathleen Mahoney, have talked about an increasingly “post-secular academy.” This post-secular turn in the academy, Schmalzbauer and Mahoney argue, has been spearheaded by a “religious resurgence movement,” a heterogeneous and often uncoordinated group of scholars, who have both directly and indirectly “raised the profile of religion in American higher education.” A similar movement has taken place in the field of international affairs, with the rise of what I call American post-secular expertise on international affairs.