Chris Seiple, Ph.D., is a Senior Non-Resident Scholar who has spent his life discerning and implementing innovative ways that people come together to solve common challenges. His relational diplomacy has worked in America, Asia, and Africa. The culmination of his work is the leadership tool of “Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy,” a professional development framework that equips citizens to bring the best of their beliefs to problem-solving, while harnessing the enlightened self-interested of the local government and civil society.
Dr. Seiple is the former Co-Chair of the U.S. Secretary of State’s “Religion and Foreign Policy” working group (2011-2013). Seiple also served as senior advisor to USAID, (2020), heading up the research committee in support of USAID’s Summit on Strategic Religious Engagement. A former U.S. Marine infantry officer, he is the president emeritus of the Institute for Global Engagement. He is the former Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Council on the Role of Faith. Dr. Seiple’s book, The U.S. Military/NGO Relationship in Humanitarian Interventions (1996), is a seminal work in the field. He did his PhD on Sir Halford John Mackinder and US-Uzbekistan relations. Seiple is the 2003 founder of the Routledge-published journal, The Review of Faith & International Affairs. He is also the co-editor of The Routledge Handbook on Religion & Security (2012), and the Routledge Handbook on Religious Literacy, Pluralism & Global Engagement (2022). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Dr. Seiple has a PhD from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy; an MA in National Security from the Naval Postgraduate School; and a BA in International Relations from Stanford University. He is also a graduate of Radnor High School (just outside of Philadelphia), where he was an all-state soccer player, a game that has shaped his approach to pluralism. He is a senior fellow at Love Your Neighbor Community, which will partner with the Center in implementing Pluralism360.