In October 1998 Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). The IRFA mandated the promotion of religious liberty around the world as a central element of American foreign policy. In 2008 three symposia at Georgetown examine the origins (February 25), performance (April 21) and promise (October 10) of IRF policy. Experts from across the spectrum of American public life - scholars, policymakers, experts and journalists - as well as informed officials and observers from around the globe, will analyze policy. The April symposium, building on the first one, will take stock of the results of U.S. International Religious Freedom Policy thus far.

Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, will deliver a speech on the "Radical Regimes and Islamist Ideology in the 21st Century" at Georgetown University on Wednesday, March 26, at 8:00 PM ET. The speech is sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in conjunction with the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

"The United States is a religious nation, but neither scholars of U.S. foreign policy nor its practitioners have taken religion very seriously." So says the opening sentence from Thomas Farr's article "Diplomacy in an Age of Faith: Religious Freedom and National Security," published in the most recent issue of Foreign Affairs.  The Honorable Rick Santorum and EPPC will host a luncheon roundtable on Thursday, March 20 with Thomas Farr discussing this topic, arguing not only that religious ideas and actors can buttress and expand ordered liberty, but that the U.S. should move resolutely to make the defense and expansion of religious liberty a core component of U.S. foreign policy.

Commenting on low birth rates and the increase in Muslim population, Professor Bernard Lewis has said, "Current trends show that Europe will have a Muslim majority by the end of the twenty-first century at the latest. . . . Europe will be part of the Arab West-the Maghreb."  In this lecture sponsored by Rick Santorum's Program to Protect America's Freedom, EPPC Distinguished Senior Fellow George Weigel and Mr. Philip Jenkins will debate the future of Europe in light of the Continent's collision of secularization and the ever growing, increasingly Islamicized Muslim population.  Lunch will be served.