Chasing the Devil at Foggy Bottom: The Future of Religion in American Diplomacy

by Shaun A. Casey, John Kerry (Foreword)

Understanding the role of religion in global politics is crucial for effective diplomacy. 
   
Many American policy makers are squeamish about religion’s role in diplomacy. Nevertheless, religion plays a crucial and complex part in global affairs, such as in sustainable development, various human rights issues, and fomenting and mitigating conflict. Shaun A. Casey, the founding director of the US Department of State’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs, makes a compelling case for the necessity of understanding global religion in  Chasing the Devil at Foggy Bottom .   
   
In this fresh and provocative narrative, Casey writes frankly about his work integrating sophisticated, research-driven policy into the State Department under Secretary of State John Kerry. Their new strategy went beyond older paradigms that focused myopically on religious freedom or countering violent extremism. Such reductive approaches, Casey insists, cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars in the US’s ill-fated invasion of Iraq in 2003. Witty and astute, Casey recounts his team’s challenges in DC politics as well as in the major global events of his tenure, including climate change, the rise of ISIL, and the refugee crisis.  
 
On a global stage with higher stakes than ever, effective diplomacy is imperative. Yet in this critical moment, the United States’s reputation has faltered.  Chasing the Devil at Foggy Bottom  offers a path forward to better foreign policy.

269 pages, Hardcover

Published January 24, 2023

Reviews

[Larry · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title is misleading clickbait. Some interesting insider info on how portions of the State department work, co-opted (for me) by the author's partisanship (can't mention Republicans without attaching a derogatory adjective such as hateful, xenophobic, irrational - so much for being a Christian). The hero worship of John Kerry was over the top. I struggled with the chapter on Refugees; the author mentions visiting various locations in the US, among them Des Moines, with one school district having students speaking over 100 languages. Rather than delving into why this might be concerning for local residents, any challenges are chalked up to xenophobia, and his solution is that the number one priority is to redefine refugee status to be even broader. The world can't handle the current crisis, so the solution is to make it worse (in the name of "climate change"). That was par for the book.
In the abstract, the concept for "S/RGA" seemed solid; adding more understanding of global religions seems like a no-brainer and was something you would expect to have been in place for decades. But as with any politician's comments, I feel the book was filled with half truths and deliberate misrepresentations. How much of this was already going on with established departments? Was a new group really necessary, or simply a vanity project for Kerry? We're told the current groups weren't adequate or didn't have funding for the desired mission. Why not leverage the existing infrastructure rather than building something new?

Not recommended, but one might look at the notes/references and see some of the related titles for more info in this space.

[David Blankenship · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an enlightening, if sometimes self-serving (as most political memoirs are) insight to how hard doing diplomatic work at and within the US State department can be. Casey's work, seeking to let religion inform how America conducts foreign policy during the second half of the Obama adminisration, was something that most leaders likely never considered necessary, but his desire to create diaologue and recognize that religion shapes how nation-states think and act (even in a postmodern secular world) was a noble work. I would have liked to hear more about his thoughts on how badly Trumpism destroyed much of what he sought to do; he drops hints here and there but in a diplomatic tone rarely goes into detail about what kind of trainwreck came in years to come, setting the nation back in a way in which it will take years to recover. This is more about shaping the historical record than it is a guide to what we should be doing in the future, but it's an interesting read nonetheless.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Open and thought-provoking examination of the work of the State Department’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs (since absorbed into the Office of International Religious Freedom). Casey puts a human face on the bureaucracy without self-aggrandizement.

[Annm · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written, in-depth view of the State Department and global diplomacy from a unique and important perspective.