Several members of the IGE team have publications this year on critical intersections of religion and international affairs. IGE’s publications program is a key part of its mission to inform and shape mindsets of leaders—religious and secular, governmental and nongovernmental, domestic and international. IGE’s rigorous yet accessible scholarship helps to build bridges of understanding among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers in diverse arenas of global public life.

F. Carson Mencken and Elisa Zhai Autry, “Risk Aversion, Shortage Economy, and Gender Differences in Religious Activities in China,”Sociological Focus (Vol 46, No 2). With her former Baylor University colleague F. Carson Mencken, IGE’s Elisa Zhai Autry notes that the vast majority of studies show that women are more religious than men. Zhai Autry and Mencken test whether these differences stem from gender differences in risk aversion.

Kristen Lundquist, Hien Vu, and Chris Seiple, “Evangelical Women and Transformative Peace-building,” in Peace on Earth: The Role of Religion in Peace and Conflict Studies, edited by Thomas Matyók, Maureen Flaherty, Hamdesa Tuso, Jessica Senehi, and Sean Byrne (Lexington Books, forthcoming). Based on their personal experiences through their work with IGE in Vietnam and in various Muslim-majority countries, this chapter is an original contribution to the emerging body of literature on the roles that women of faith can play in peace and security.

Chris Seiple and Dennis Hoover, “Religious Freedom and Global Security,” in The Future of Religious Freedom: Global Challenges, edited by Allen D. Kertzke (Oxford University Press, 2013). Seiple and Hoover argue that because all people seek answers to ultimate questions, countries that suppress religion will inevitably see harmful social consequences, while those that establish respectful regimes of sustainable religious freedom will naturally experience compounding social benefits.

Chris Seiple, “The Enduring Relevance of Sir Halford John Mackinder’s Heartland Philosophy: The Case of US-Uzbekistan Relations,” in Central Asia in International Relations: The Legacies of Halford Mackinder, edited by Nick Megoran and Sevara Sharapova (Oxford University Press 2013). Seiple contributes an innovative analysis of the continuing relevance of Halford Mackinder’s thinking—who theorized that control of the “heart-land” of Eurasia, centered on Central Asia, would prove key to the balance of global power—applying it to the relationship between the U.S. and Uzbekistan.

Chris Seiple, Dennis Hoover, and Pauletta Otis, eds., The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Security (Routledge, 2013). In this essential new reference, Seiple, Hoover, and Otis bring security studies and religious studies together in ways that deepen and broaden the nascent field of religion and security.