Guide to Specialists

Paul A. Wee
Program Officer, Religion and Peacemaking Program

ARCHIVED SPECIALIST PROFILE

Download print-quality image

Languages: German

Paul A. Wee joined USIP as a program officer in the Religion and Peacemaking program in February 2006. His previous work has focused on conflict resolution, including confidence-building, relating to insurgent movements, governments, and the NGO community, in Africa, the Middle East, and Central America. He is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Prior to joining USIP, Wee taught courses on religion and global politics at the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University. He has taught on the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oxford and was, from 2001 to 2002, international theological director of the Luther Center in Wittenberg, Germany. Wee was assistant general secretary for international affairs and human rights at the Geneva-based Lutheran World Federation, where he worked closely with the World Jewish Congress, the World Council of Churches and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. He has frequently collaborated with various United Nations offices and in 1994 served as a member of the United Nations Observer Mission to South Africa (UNOMSA), which was mandated to provide oversight of the country’s first democratic election.

Wee was awarded the Order of Merit, First Class, by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany for his work among religious institutions in east and west during the Cold War period. He received his B.A. from Harvard University; a Master’s of Divinity from Luther Theological Seminary; and a Ph.D. in philosophy and social science from the Free University of Berlin.

Publications:

• The Crisis in Interfaith Relations in the Middle East
  USIPeace Briefing (March 2007)
• Responding to Crisis in Nigeria
  USIPeace Briefing (April 2006)
• American Destiny and the Calling of the Church (Augsburg-Fortress Press, 2006).
• "Breaking the Cycle of Conflict Between Science and Religion," in Hope for Your Future (Eerdmans, 2002).
• "Promoting the General Welfare—Without Welfare," (The Louisville Institute, 1997).
• "Unspeakable Truths: Analyzing Cycles of Violence in Guatemala," The Christian Century (May 4, 1994).
• "Toward a Workable Partnership: Non-Governmental Organizations and the United Nations," (The Christian Children's Fund, 1994).