Jason Klocek on International Religious Freedom

Jason Klocek on International Religious Freedom

Thursday, July 30, 2020

By: Jason Klocek, Ph.D.

The global rise in religious discrimination and oppression risks creating new cycles of violence. USIP’s Jason Klocek says we must “rethink … some of the conventional wisdom we have about religious freedom and its relationship to peace and development” if we want to reverse this trend and prevent conflict.

Type: Podcast

Religion

Combating Religious Discrimination in India and Beyond

Combating Religious Discrimination in India and Beyond

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

By: Jason Klocek

Last month, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom listed India as a “country of particular concern” for the first time since 2004. The decision reflects increased religious hostility and sectarian conflict in India, which have been stoked further by the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed last December. In the five months since, the CAA’s use of religious identity as a criteria for citizenship has sparked widespread opposition and protest both within India and abroad. But while controversial, it is far from an isolated policy. It connects to a steady increase in religious discrimination and violence within India, throughout South Asia, and across the globe—raising important questions for policymakers and activists alike.

Type: Analysis

Religion

Global Trends and Challenges to Protecting and Promoting Freedom of Religion or Belief

Global Trends and Challenges to Protecting and Promoting Freedom of Religion or Belief

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

By: Jason Klocek, Ph.D.;  Scott Bledsoe

USIP collaborated with USAID’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships on an initiative called Closing the Gap to study the relationship between religious freedom and regime type, political stability, and economic development. This report summarizes the study’s main findings and offers recommendations for policymakers and peace practitioners seeking to protect and promote the freedom of individuals to practice the religion of their choice, convert to another faith, or profess no faith at all.

Type: Special Report

Religion

Three Things You Thought You Knew About Freedom of Religion or Belief

Three Things You Thought You Knew About Freedom of Religion or Belief

Thursday, November 12, 2020

By: Jason Klocek, Ph.D.;  Scott Bledsoe

Accounts of global religious restrictions and hostilities have, unfortunately, become a regular feature of today’s news cycle. India’s passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act, which uses religious identity as a criterion for citizenship, and its violent crackdown against protesters made headlines at the turn of year. The Chinese government’s detention of more than a million Uyghur Muslims, increased surveillance, and other religious regulations in Xinjiang continue to garner much attention. And, increasingly more concern has been given to the ongoing attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria. While these examples are, of course, worrying and must be addressed, a deeper dive into the data reveals that many of the assumptions we hold about the state of global religious freedom need further unpacking.

Type: Analysis

Religion

Exploring the Nexus of Religion and Gender and Sexual Minorities

Exploring the Nexus of Religion and Gender and Sexual Minorities

Monday, February 28, 2022

By: Jason Klocek, Ph.D.;  Julia Schiwal

Peacebuilders and practitioners have long recognized that knowledge of local contexts leads to more practical and effective programming. However, knowledge of unique gender and sexual identities, as well as cultural practices, has been mostly absent from the long list of cultural dynamics that are assessed when looking at local peacebuilding contexts — despite often holding deeply important symbolic, religious and political meanings. 

Type: Analysis

ReligionGender

New Evidence: How Religion Aids Peaceful Change

New Evidence: How Religion Aids Peaceful Change

Thursday, September 30, 2021

By: Jason Klocek, Ph.D.;  Miranda Rivers;  Sandra Tombe, Ph.D.

The pullback in 2021 of international military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa’s Sahel region not only shows the limits of such foreign interventions. It forces policymakers to more urgently examine other ways to support the sustainable social changes that can stabilize violence-stricken nations. New USIP research sharpens an insight about one powerful method to achieve such changes—nonviolent, citizens’ movements that improve governance and justice. Effectively, the research shows, religion helps more often than we may think. Of more than 180 nonviolent campaigns for major political change since World War II, a majority have involved religion in some way.

Type: Analysis

ReligionNonviolent Action

Five Takeaways from China’s Latest Diplomacy

Five Takeaways from China’s Latest Diplomacy

Thursday, May 18, 2023

By: Carla Freeman, Ph.D.;  Mary Glantz, Ph.D.;  Daniel Markey, Ph.D.;  Jason Tower;  Andrew Watkins

China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, has been on a whirlwind diplomatic tour in recent weeks, with high-profile meetings in Europe, Myanmar, Pakistan — where he also met with Taliban officials — and back home in Beijing with the U.S. ambassador to China. With U.S.-China relations as frosty as ever, Qin’s meeting with Ambassador Nicholas Burns signals that both sides want to manage better manage their differences. In Europe, Beijing is promoting its peace plan for Ukraine despite European concerns that Beijing is decidedly pro-Moscow. Meanwhile, amid crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Myanmar, China is wielding its clout to advance its own interests in spite of the implications for long-term stability.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy