Dr. Chris Seiple

Chris Seiple, Ph.D., is the president of the Institute for Global Engagement, a research, education, and diplomatic institution that builds sustainable religious freedom worldwide through local partnerships. With a recognized expertise in U.S. foreign policy, national security, Muslim-Christian relations, and religious freedom, Seiple has appeared on BBC, MSNBC, Fox News, Saudi TV, Pakistan News One, Vietnam National TV, CN8, and CNN. He speaks frequently on the imperative interdependence of religion and realpolitik in places such as, Tashkent, Doha, Peshawar, Bannu, Moscow, Vladikavkaz, Hanoi, Issakul, Urumchi, Oslo, Hama, and Beijing. He also speaks regularly at U.S. military schools and within the intelligence community regarding national security and social-cultural-religious engagement.

Dr. Seiple is an invited, regular contributor to the National Journal's national security blog, the Washington Post's "On Faith" blog, and the Social Science Research Council's (SSRC) web forum on religious freedom. He serves on the Federal Advisory Committee to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's "Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society," where he also acts as a Senior Advisor to the Committee's "Religion and Foreign Policy" working group. He is the co-founder and co-chair of the "IRF Roundtable," a non-partisan consortium of Washington-area international religious freedom (IRF) NGOs that meets bi-monthly to discuss how best to promote religious freedom in Washington policy circles and worldwide.

A graduate of Stanford, the Naval Postgraduate School, and the Fletcher School for Law & Diplomacy, he is also the founder of The Review of Faith & International Affairs, a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (Philadelphia), a member at the Council on Foreign Relations (New York), and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London). His book, The U.S. Military/NGO Relationship in Humanitarian Interventions, is a seminal work in the field. Seiple is the co-author of International Religious Freedom Advocacy: A Guide to Organizations, Law, and NGOs (Baylor University Press, 2009), and the co-editor of The Routledge Handbook on Religion & Security (forthcoming, 2012). He wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and Uzbekistan.

A former Marine infantry officer, Seiple last served in the Pentagon as a member of the Strategic Initiatives Group, an internal think tank for the Commandant of the Marine Corps, where he helped to develop and implement the Chemical-Biological Incident Response Force and helped to envision what a new national security act might look like. Seiple serves on the Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA, board of directors, and also on the board of advisors for Carolina for Kibera, Inc. Dr. Seiple resides in Virginia with his wife, Alissa, and their children, Liam, Hanan, and Hadessah.

To contact Dr. Seiple with a publication or appearance request, please write to Lindsay West at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dr. Chris Seiple on the National Security Blog

Articles by Dr. Chris Seiple

• A.L.A.R.M.ing Access
• The Resilience of Reconciliation
• Chris Seiple on Why Accountability is the Defining Issue of the 2012 Presidential Election
• The Politics of Jesus’ Birth
• Constitutional Self-Correction and the Future of the Arab Spring
• Living the Message of Reconciliation after Osama bin Laden
• Religious-Freedom Exceptionalism
• Libya and the Moroccan Moment
• Libya's Impact is the Beginning of the Beginning
• Christian Mission in Every Sphere
• Religious Freedom in American Identity and Foreign Policy
• Our 4G God
• From the President: The Politics of Jesus’ Birth
• Reclaiming Respectful Religious Identity
• U.S. Engagement Should Model Principled Pluralism
• A National Conversation on the New York Mosque Debate
• Say No to “Jihadis,” “Islamic terrorism” and “Islamo-Fascism”
• Fragile Freedom
• IGE on Engaging Islam
• Miracle on the Mekong
• Converting the Foreign Policy Elite
• Change in Pakistan Requires Respect, Reconciliation, and Religious Freedom
• From the President: Engaging Conservative Islam
• From the President: Christmas Politics
• A Thankful Body
• Love of God & Love of Neighbor: A Call to Action
• Albright to Anchor IGE's 10th Anniversary
• U.S Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan
• Why IGE? Why Now?
• A Practical Theology for Complex Places
• Every Effort
• Ten Terms NOT Useful to Engaging Muslims Worldwide
• IGE: Your Global Neighborhood Weather Station
• Fundamentals of Global Engagement
• International Religious Freedom Advocacy
• The Two-Sustainable-States Solution
• Humility's Hope
• The Road to Reconciliation
• Loving Locally in an Election Year
• Conference on Constitutional Democracy in Africa: A Brief Report
• Seizing the Middle East Moment
• The Promised Land’s Existential Election
• IGE Delegation Meets with Vietnam's Prime Minister
• The Art of Relational Diplomacy
• Getting the Questions Right
• The Last Best Hope
• The Forgotten Fellowship
• Voting Evangelical
• America's Greatest Soft Power: Religious Freedom
• Chris Seiple on Vietnam
• From the President: Moving from Ideology to Identity
• From the President: Why I Signed the Open Letter
• Making Religious Freedom Real
• Chris Seiple on Vietnam
• From the President: Presence and Provision
• From the President: Engaging Conservative Islam
• From the President: That Alien Idea
• From the President: The Role of Religion in Winning the Long War
• Memo to the State: Religion and Security
• From the President: Of Fear & Faith
• From the President: A Saintly Start?
• From the President: An Absence of Awe
• From the President: Ramadan and Reason
• From the President: WWD2: Why We Do What We Do
• The Gate at Bethel: Building Religious Freedom in Vietnam
• From the President: Practical Steps in Northwest Frontier Province
• From the President: Contently Called
• From the President: That Alien Idea
• Engaging Islam
• From the President: Time to Talk Religion & Politics
• Time to Talk Religion & Politics: Speech at U.S.-Islamic World Forum
• From the President: Is Our Piety "Pagan"?
• From the President: Practicing What We Preach
• Trip Report: Engaging Pakistan's North West Frontier Province
• From the President: Obedience, not Obligation
• From the President: Pride or Patience?
• From the President: Religious Freedom and Reconciliation
• Religious Freedom & Reconciliation in Vietnam
• From the President: Understanding Uzbekistan
• From the President: Engaging Islam
• From the President: Remembering Woytyla, Shepherd of Freedom
• From the President: Strategy, Evangelism, and Freedom
• From the President: Realism and Religious Liberty
• From the President: Religion & Realpolitik: Recommendations for the President
• Transforming National Security: The 9/11 Imperative
• From the President: IGE in DC
• From the President: Working at Rest
• From the President: Servant Partnership
• From the President: Abu Ghraib and America
• From the President: American Evangelicalism II: Peril & Promise
• Implications of Terrorism in Uzbekistan
• From the President: Geo-graphing Uzbek U.S. Fundamentalism
• From the President: American Evangelicalism I: Faith or Ideology?
• From the President: Interrogating Islam… & Ourselves
• Heartland Geopolitics
• From the President: Youthful America
• From the President: On Frailty & Freedom
• Religion and the New Global Counterinsurgency
• Geo-Christianity: Back to the Future
• The Grand Strategy: Sustainment
• Toward a World Safe for Religion and Politics
• Driving in the Fog: An Uzbek Election
• Seeing Uzbekistan: From Cliché to Clarity
• Strategic Objectives in Central Asia
• Yes, Uzbekistan
• The U.S. Military/NGO Relationship in Humanitarian Interventions