Diplomatic Leadership Development after the “Weaponization of Everything”: Approaching Religion or Belief as a Professional Competence

This article describes new education and research work with government departments and major NGOs to develop fresh approaches and paradigms of leadership learning about religion and security for those engaged full time in global politics, diplomacy, and policy. Drawing from research in seven countries, it proposes a move away from an embrace of specialist “religious literacy” education advocated by high-profile religious actors. Instead, this article proposes the opportunity for leadership development which assesses religion or belief as a generic evidence-based core professional diplomatic competence worthy of serious attention no more nor less important than any other professional field. As a first step in that goal, it delineates a new open-source tool entitled the Religion for International Engagement Matrix and describes its positive reception when trialed, including with two foreign ministries.

In this article, I will describe aspects of extended work to develop religion for international engagement training for those working in international affairs and diplomacy. This article draws on work with five government departments—including two foreign ministries—and nine international non-governmental organizations in seven countries and on four continents. Where necessary participating organizations and persons have been anonymized to protect their identities.

First, I turn to the matter of “security” and its extension from and to religion as modern diplomacy has come to be characterized by the “weaponization of everything” (Galleotti 2022). Second, I describe new education and research work which has shed initial fresh light on the complexity of—and opportunity to devise—manageable paradigms of learning for those engaged fulltime in global politics and policy. Finally, and drawing from the research summarized here I propose a move away from an embrace of specialist “religious literacy” education advocated by high-profile religious actors. Instead, I propose the need for leadership development that assesses religion or belief as a generic evidence-based core professional diplomatic competence worthy of serious attention like any other professional field.