USA with the World Project

The USA with the World: Christian Voices for Peace with Justice
 
The proper role for the USA in our conflict-ridden world is hotly debated. Some view the USA as a catalyst for freedom throughout the world. Others view the USA as imperialistic, seeking to foster its own self-interests. In this volatile context, the Center for Christian Studies has embarked on a USA with the World project, the purpose of which is "to encourage high quality Christian thinking on the present and future role of the USA with the world, in order to foster significant Christian contributions to public conversations."
 
On September 14-16, 2006, the first stage of this project was completed in a seminar titled "Mapping the Territory." Twenty Christian scholars met at Gordon College to discuss "thesis papers" that identified those subtopics for which there is the greatest potential for Christian perspectives to make a significant contribution to public conversations. The subtopics included "The USA and Global Poverty," "Faith and Globalization," "The War on Terrorism," "Israel, the USA and Zionism," "A Reconciliation Ethic for Peace-building," "Engaging a Global Chinese Society and Culture," "American Popular Culture Making America Unpopular," and "International Religious Freedom."
 
The next stage of this project will be to commission essays from selected seminar participants that elaborate on their theses, to compose one (or two) books. The Center for Christian Studies is also working with the New Hampshire Institute for Politics (NHIP) at Saint Anselm College (Manchester, NH) to orchestrate a public meeting at NHIP in the fall of 2007, around drafts of commissioned essays. It is our hope that disseminating various Christian perspectives on the role of the USA with the world, at NHIP (a stopping place for many presidential candidates prior to the New Hampshire primaries) and through the publication of one or two books, will contribute to public conversations as USA citizens prepare for the 2008 presidential election.
 
Harold Heie, Project Director
The USA with the World
Senior Fellow
Center for Christian Studies

Conference Participants:

John Bernbaum
President
Russian-American Christian University
The Leading Edge: How NGOs can be Agents for Democratic Change

Dorothy Boorse
Associate Professor of Biology
Gordon College
Toward a Sustainable Global Environment: Concerns About Science and Public Policy in the USA

Alice-Catherine Carls
Professor of History
University of Tennessee - Martin
The Middle East: The New Crucible

Peter Dula
Iraq Program Coordinator
Mennonite Central Committee
USA Humanitarianism: Complicity in a New Colonialism?

Carol Lee Hamrin
Research Professor (China Specialist)
George Mason University
Engaging a Global Chinese Society and Culture

Dennis Hoover
Editor
The Brandywine Review of Faith and International Relations
USA Promotion of International Religious Freedom

Thomas Albert (Tal) Howard
Associate Professor of History
Director, Jerusalem & Athens Forum
Gordon College
American Religion and European Anti-Americanism

James Turner Johnson
Professor of Religion
Rutgers University
Religion and Political Legitimacy: Three Models in Current Debate

Ron Mahurin
Vice President for Professional Development & Research
Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU)
Educating for the Role of the USA in the World

Paul Marshall
Senior Fellow
Freedom House-Center for Religious Freedom
The War on Terrorism in Light of Radical Muslim Violence

Steve Meyer
Professor of Political Science
National Defense University
The Emerging International System: The Issue of Governance

Daniel Philpott
Associate Professor of Political Science
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
University of Notre Dame
Reconciliation: An Ethic for a Policy of Peacebuilding 

Elizabeth Prodromou
Assistant Professor of International Relations
Associate Director, Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs
Boston University
International Perceptions of the US Promotion of Religious Freedom: Views about Culture and Conquest

Robert Royal
Director
Faith & Reason Institute
Popular Culture as a Lens for Perceiving the USA

Ron Sider
President
Evangelicals For Social Action
The Role of the United States in Light of the Perceived Materialism and "Moral Decline" of American Culture

Jim Skillen
President
Center for Public Justice
Israel, The United States and Zionism

Stephen L. S. Smith
Professor of Economics & Business
Gordon College
The United States and Global Poverty: How Can Aid Make a Difference?

Max Stackhouse
Professor of Reformed Theology and Public Life
Princeton Theological Seminary
Faith and Globalization