�鶹����

Tel: (703) 993-1054 | E-mail: pmandavi@gmu.edu

EMPLOYMENT

2025 – present
Professor of Government and Politics
Schar School of Policy and Government
Director, AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies
George Mason �鶹����
(Previously Assistant Professor, 2000-2005;
Associate Professor 2005-2014, Professor 2014-2022)

2024 – 2025
Director, Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships and Senior Advisor for Faith Engagement, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

2022 – 2024
Senior Advisor, Religion & Inclusive Societies
United States Institute of Peace (USIP)

2015 – 2017
Senior Advisor, Office of Religion and Global Affairs
U.S. Department of State (on leave from George Mason �鶹����)

2010 – 2012
Policy Planning Staff, Office of the Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State (on leave from George Mason �鶹����)

2003 – 2010
Founding Director (then Co-Director)
Center for Global Studies, George Mason �鶹����

2000 – 2003
Director of Research, Office of Henry Kissinger
Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS)

1998 – 2000
Lecturer in International Relations
Department of Politics & International Relations
�鶹���� of Kent at Canterbury (UK)

Other professional affiliations

2018 – present
Senior Research Fellow
Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs
Georgetown �鶹����

2020 – 2022
Visiting Senior Expert
United States Institute of Peace (USIP)

2012 – 2020
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution, Washington DC (suspended 2015-16 due to government service)

2017 – 2019
Fellow, Lokahi Foundation, London, UK.

2011 – 2016
Adjunct Senior Fellow, RAND Corporation

2008 – 2009
Visiting Senior Fellow, Pew Research Center, Washington, DC

2003 (Jan-May)
Visiting Faculty Fellow, School of International Service,
American �鶹����, Washington DC

EDUCATION

1998
Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations (PhD)
Department of Politics & International Relations
�鶹���� of Kent at Canterbury (UK)

1995
Master of Arts in International Conflict Analysis w/Distinction
Department of Politics & International Relations
�鶹���� of Kent at Canterbury (UK)

1994
Master of Arts Joint Honours in International Relations
St. Andrews �鶹����, Scotland

1991 (Summer)
Arabic Language Institute (ALI)
American �鶹���� in Cairo, Egypt

PUBLICATIONS

Books

The Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power: How States Use Religion in Foreign Policy, New York: Oxford �鶹���� Press, 2023 (edited volume).

Wahhabism in the World: Understanding Saudi Arabia’s Global Influence on Religion, New York & Oxford: Oxford �鶹���� Press, 2022 (edited volume).

Islam and Politics, New York & London: Routledge, 3^rd Edition, 2020 (Turkish edition, 2011; Arabic edition, 2014).

Politics from Afar: Diasporas and Transnational Networks, New York: Columbia �鶹���� Press, 2012 (co-edited with Terrence Lyons).

Globalizing Religions, Newbury Park: Sage, 2009 (co-edited with Paul James).

Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma, London: Routledge, 2001 (revised paperback edition, 2003; Arabic edition 2017).

Meaning and International Relations, London: Routledge, 2003 (co-edited with Andrew Williams).

The Zen of International Relations: IR Theory From East to West, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001 (co-edited with Stephen Chan & Roland Bleiker).

Peer-reviewed journal articles

“,”��The Review of Faith & International Affairs, Vol. 19, 2021.

‘Imagining the Muslim Atlantic,’ in Critical Muslim 35, July 2020 (co-authored with Dan Nilsson DeHanas).

‘Islam and Exceptionalism in American Political Discourse,’ PS Political Science and Politics 46:2, April 2013.

‘Globalization and Transnational Muslim Solidarities,’ Nations & Nationalism, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2012.

‘Think Locally, Act Globally: Diasporas & Transnational Politics,’ International Political Sociology, Vol. 4, No. 2, June 2010. (co-authored with Terrence Lyons)

‘Muslim Transnationalism and State Responses in the UK After 9/11: Political Community, Ideology & Authority,’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 35, No. 3, 2009.

‘Rethinking Democracy and Democracy Assistance,’ Development, Vol. 50, No. 1, 2007. (co-authored with Alicia Phillips Mandaville)

‘Globalization and the Politics of Religious Knowledge: Pluralizing Authority in the Muslim World,’ Theory, Culture and Society, Vol. 24, No. 2, Spring 2007.

‘Towards a New Cosmopolitanism; or, the “I” Dislocated,’ Global Society, Vol. 17, No. 2, April 2003.��

'Reading the State from Elsewhere: Towards an Anthropology of the Postnational', Review of International Studies, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2002.��

‘The Politics of Mediated Community: Reimagining Islam in Diaspora,’ Gazette: International Journal of Communication Studies, Vol. 62, No. 2, 2001.��

'Territory and Translocality: Discrepant Idioms of Political Identity,' Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 28. No. 3, 1999.

'Sayyid's A Fundamental Fear: a dialogical review,' Global Society, Vol. 13, No. 2, 1999 (with Bobby Sayyid).��

Peer-reviewed book chapters��

“Peacebuilding and Religious Engagement in Diplomacy” in Nukhet Sandal & Ingo Trauschweizer (ed.), Religion and Peace: Global Perspectives & Possibilities, Columbus: Ohio �鶹���� Press, forthcoming 2022.

‘Islam and Exceptionalism in the Western Policy Imagination’ in Tamara Sonn (ed.), Overcoming Orientalism: Essays in Honor of John Esposito, New York: Oxford �鶹���� Press, 2021.

‘Islamism at a Crossroads’ in James Gelvin (ed.), Understanding the New Middle East, Palo Alto: Stanford �鶹���� Press, 2021.

‘Islamism and U.S. Foreign Policy’ in Shadi Hamid and William McCants (eds.), Rethinking Political Islam, New York: Oxford �鶹���� Press, 2017.

‘Post-Islamism as Neoliberalisation’ in Faisal Devji and Zaheer Kazmi (ed.), Islam After Liberalism, New York: Oxford �鶹���� Press, 2017.

‘Islam and International Relations in the Middle East: From Umma to Nation-State’ in Louise Fawcett (ed.), International Relations of the Middle East, Oxford and New York: Oxford �鶹���� Press, 4^th��Edition, 2016.

‘Global Jihadism, Subalternity and Urban Islam in the West’ in Zaheer Kazmi and Jeevan Deol (eds.), Contextualizing Jihadi Ideologies, New York: Columbia �鶹���� Press, 2012.

‘The New Transnationalism: Globalizing Islamic Movements’ in Robert Hefner (ed.), The New Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 6, Cambridge: Cambridge �鶹���� Press, 2010.

‘Does Religion Matter?’ in Jenny Edkins and Maja Zehfuss (eds.), Global Politics: A New Introduction, London: Routledge, 2008.

‘The Heterarchic Umma: Reading Islamic Civilization from Within,’ in Martin Hall and Patrick Thaddeus Jackson (eds.), Civilizational Identity: The Production and Reproduction of ‘Civlizations’ in International Relations, New York: Palgrave, 2007.

‘Islamic Education in Britain: Approaches to Religious Knowledge in a Pluralistic Society’ in Robert Hefner & Muhammad Qasim Zaman (eds.), Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education, Princeton: Princeton �鶹���� Press, 2007.

‘Glocal Hero: Harry Potter Abroad’ in Iver Neumann & Daniel Nexon (eds.), Worlding Harry Potter, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. (with Patrick T. Jackson)

‘Sufis & Salafis: The Political Discourse of Transnational Islam’ in Robert Hefner (ed.), Remaking Muslim Politics, Princeton: Princeton �鶹���� Press, 2005.

‘When Meaning Travels: The Changing Boundaries of Muslim Political Community’ in Peter Mandaville & Andrew Williams (eds.), Meaning and International Relations, London: Routledge, 2003.��

Book chapters

‘Les défis de la religion et de la politique étrangère aux États‐Unis’ in Denis Lacorne, Justin Vaïsse, Jean‐Paul Willaime (eds), La diplomatie au défi des religions. Tensions, guerres, médiations, Paris: Odile Jacob, 2014

‘American Muslims and Global Islam’ in Yvonne Haddad and Jane Smith (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Islam in America. Oxford: Oxford �鶹���� Press, 2014.

‘From Medinah to the Ummah: Muslim Globalization in Historical and Contemporary Perspective’ in Eliezer Ben-Rafael & Yitzhak Sternberg (eds.), World Religions and Multiculturalism: A Dialectic Relation, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010.

‘Islamic Popular Culture in the United Kingdom’ in Christiane Timmerman et al. (eds.), In-Between Space: Christian and Muslim Minorities in Transition in Europe and the Middle East, Bern: Peter Lang, 2009.

'Reimagining Islam in Diaspora: The Politics of Media and Community' in Karim Karim (ed.), Diasporic Media and Transnational Communities, London: Routledge, 2003.��

‘Towards a Critical Islam: European Muslim and the Changing Boundaries of Religious Discourse’ in Stefano Allievi and Jorgen Nielsen (eds.), Muslim Networks and Transnational Communities in and Across Europe, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2003.��

‘Europe’s Muslim Youth: The Politics of Pluralism’ in Shireen Hunter (ed.), Islam, Europe’s Second Religion, Westport, CT.: Praeger Press, 2002.��

‘Reimagining the Ummah? Information Technology and the Changing Boundaries of Political Islam’ in Ali Mohammadi (ed.), Islam Encountering Globalization, London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002.��

‘De informatietechnologie en de verschuivende grenzen van de Europese islam’ in Dick Douwes (ed.), Naar Een Europese Islam?, Amsterdam: Mets & Schilt, 2004.��

'Information Technology and the Changing Boundaries of European Islam' in Felice Dassetto (ed.), Paroles d'Islam: Individus, Sociétés et Discours dans l'Islam Contemporain, Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 2000.��

'Hegemony and Autonomy in International Relations: The Continental Experience' in Robert Crawford & Darryl Jarvis (eds.), International Relations: Still an American Social Science? Towards Diversity in International Thought, Albany, NY: State �鶹���� of New York Press, 2000 (with A.J.R. Groom).��

Other articles, reports & working papers��

“War and the Church in Ukraine,” USIP Analysis & Commentary, March 14, 2024.

“One Vital Change Can Advance Long-Term Peace in Ukraine,” USIP Analysis & Commentary, July 20, 2023.

“T�����U.S.��Strategyfor��International��Religious��Engagement��10��Years������,”��USIP��Analysis& Commentary, May 23, 2023��(co-authored with Julia Schiwal).

“A New Approach for Digital Media, Peace, and Conflict,” USIP Analysis & Commentary, February 15, 2023, (co-authored with Julia Schiwal).

“Maintaining International Religious Freedom as a Central Tenet of U.S. National Security,” USIP Special Report, October 17, 2022 (co-authored with Knox Thames).

“,” Berkley Forum, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, Georgetown �鶹����, May 24, 2022.

“T��� Role of Religion in Russia’s War with Ukraine,” USIP Commentary & Analysis, March 17, 2022 (with Aidan Houston).

“How Putin Turned Religion’s ‘Sharp Power’ Against Ukraine,” USIP Commentary & Analysis, February 9, 2022.

Advancing Global Peace & Security Through Religion Engagement: Lessons to Improve U.S. Policy, USIP Special Report, November 23, 2021 (with Chris Seiple).

“Finding Common Ground on U.S. International Religious Freedom Policy,” USIP Commentary & Analysis, May 20, 2021 (with Knox Thames & Emily Scolaro),

“,” Berkley Forum, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, Georgetown �鶹����, December 11, 2020.

“USIP on Advancing Religious Engagement in Diplomacy & Development,” USIP Blog, December 1, 2020.

“Whither Islam in Afghanistan’s Political System After the Taliban Talks?” USIP Blog, October 7, 2020.

“Living the Muslim Atlantic: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Marginality,” British Council Bridging Voices Report, April 2020 (with Daniel Nilsson DeHanas & Renasha Khan).

“T��� Rise of Islamic Soft Power,” Foreign Affairs Online, December 7, 2018 (with Shadi Hamid).

“Political Pluralism in the Middle East and North Africa,” Washington DC & Istanbul: Hollings Center for International Dialogue, March 2018.

“How American Changed Its Approach to Political Islam,” The Atlantic Online, October 4, 2017 (co-authored will Shadi Hamid and Will McCants).

“Engaging Religion and Religious Actors in Countering Violent Extremism,” Special Report, United States Institute of Peace, August 2017 (co-authored with Melissa Nozell).

“Designating Muslims: Islam in the Western Policy Imagination,” Review of Faith and International Affairs, Vol. 15, No. 3, August 2017.

“T��� Future of Religion and Foreign Policy Under Trump,” Foreign Policy Studies Report, Brookings Institution, March 2017.

“,” Brookings Institution Order from Chaos blog, March 7, 2017.

“Contextualizing Islam in Europe and North America: Challenges and Opportunities,” US-Islamic World Forum Papers 2014, Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 2015 (co-authored with Dilwar Hussain).

“Integrating Religious Engagement into Diplomacy: Challenges and Opportunities,” Issues in Governance Studies, No. 67, Washington DC: The Brookings Institution, 2015 (co-authored with Sara Silvestri).

“Is the Post-Islamism Thesis Still Valid?” Rethinking Islamist Politics Briefing Paper,��Washington DC: Project on Middle East Political Science, George Washington �鶹����, January 30, 2014.

“,” The Atlantic.com, January 7, 2014.

“Bringing the United States Back Into the Middle East,” The Washington Quarterly 36:4, Fall 2013 (co-authored with Shadi Hamid).

New Approaches to Security and Justice Sector Partnerships: Implications of the Arab Uprisings. Washington DC: RAND Corporation, 2013 (co-authored with Mike McNerney and Jennifer Moroney).

“” ForeignPolicy.com, September 30, 2013. Available online at:

“A Coup Too Far: Reordering U.S. Priorities in Egypt” Brookings Doha Center Policy Paper, Doha, Qatar: Brookings Doha Center, 2013 (co-authored with Shadi Hamid).

“Libya’s Post-Qaddafi Transition: The Nation-Building Challenge,” RAND Corporation, November 2012 (co-authored with Chris Chivvis, Keith Crane, and Jeff Martini).

“Religion and Political Civility: The Long Conversation,” Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution, November 2012.

“T��� Unexceptional Islamists,” Foreign Policy.com, July 24, 2012.

“American’s Egypt Quandary,” Foreign Policy.com, June 26, 2012.

Muslim Movements & Networks in Europe: Social Integration & Radicalization, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, September 2010.

“,” YaleGlobal Online, 19 August 2010.

“Transformative Partnerships in U.S.-Muslim Relations: Empowering Networks for Community Development and Social Change,” Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, July 2010.

“Whither U.S. Engagement with Muslims?” Foreign Policy.com, 4 June 2010.

“,” The Guardian Online, 4 June 2009.

Transnational Islam in South & Southeast Asia: Movements, Networks & Conflict Dynamics, National Bureau of Asian Research Project Report, April 2009.

‘Engaging Islamists in the West,’ CTC Sentinel, Vol. 1, Issue 7, June 2008.

‘,’ International Herald Tribune, November 11, 2005, p. 4.

‘Advice to the President of the World Bank,” The International Economy, Summer 2005.��

‘Is Continued Globalization Inevitable? – A Response,’ The International Economy, Summer 2004.��

‘What Does Progressive Islam Look Like?’, Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) Newsletter 12, June 2003.��

‘Political Conditionality as Counter-terrorism,’ Belgrade Journal of Human Rights, 2002.��

‘Europe’s Muslim Youth: Dynamics of Alienation and Integration’ in Shireen Hunter with Huma Malik (ed.), Islam in Europe and the United States: A Comparative Perspective, Conference Proceedings, April 2001.��

Beyond the Metropole / Beyond Multiculturalism: Transnational Labour Migration and Political Identity in the Arab Gulf, Working Papers in Ethics & Transnational Politics 1, London: London Center of International Relations, 2000.��

'Digital Islam: Changing the Boundaries of Religious Knowledge?', Cover Article, Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) Newsletter 2, March 1999.��

'Reimagining the Ummah', Discussion Paper No. 7, Centre for International Studies, Aalborg �鶹����, January 1999.��

'Digitizing Islam,' Middle East Affairs Journal, Vol. 5, Nos. 1-2, Winter/Spring 1999.��

'Hegemony and Autonomy in Studies of International Relations,' Medunarodni Problemi��(International Problems), Vol. 49, No. 4, 1997.��

'Political Violence after the Oslo Accords,' Periodica Islamica, Vol. 6, No. 3, 1997.��

'Caught in the Net: Information Technology in the Arab Gulf States,' Gulf States Newsletter, Vol. 22, No. 574, November 1997.

'Islamism in the Heart of Islam: Religious Opposition in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain,' King's College Dept. of War Studies White Paper, 1997.��

'The European Centre for International Conflict Resolution: a Proposal,' UK Defence Review Working Paper, submitted to the UK Government's Defence Review, November 1997 (with N.J. Marsh).��

'The Future of Conflict? Information Warfare Threat Assessment,' UK Defence Forum Working Paper, January 1998.��


'The Aftershocks of the Dhahran Bomb,' UK Defence Review Grey Papers, July 1996.��

Magazine and online interviews��

“An interview with Professor Peter Mandaville on Religion and US foreign policy,” Centre on Religion and Global Affairs, February 14, 2017.

‘“Ils rejettent l’islam du village,” Entretien avec Peter Mandaville,’ Alternatives Internationales, Number 27, September 2005.��

‘Le Web d’Islam,’ Cités: Philosophie, Politique, Histoire, Special Issue on Islam in France, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, Spring 2004.��

OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Congressional Testimony

Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, United States Senate, July 2008, “Political Islam”

House Caucus on Human Rights, U.S. House of Representatives, May 2002. “Human Rights in Saudi Arabia”

Recent media appearances & quotations

New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, International Herald Tribune, The New Republic, PBS, NPR, BBC, Al-Jazeera, USA Today, Voice of America

Consultancies & advising

U.S. Department of State, United States Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. National Intelligence Council, Helsinki Commission of the United States, Foreign & Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, European Union External Action Service, World Bank, Brookings Institution, RAND Corporation, Institute for Inclusive Security, Oxford Analytica, National Bureau of Asian Research, Pew Global Attitudes Project, Pew Survey of Muslim Americans, Global Business Network (GBN).

Expert advisory council & board memberships

2019 – present
Member, Advisory Council, Religion & Foreign Policy Program, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)

2017 – present
Advisory Council, Cambridge Institute on Religion and International Studies, Clare College, Cambridge �鶹����

2021 – 2024
Member, Advisory Board, World Barometer of Culture, Observatoire Pharos, Paris.

2020 – 2022
Member, Advisory Board, European Union Global Exchange on Religion & Society (GERIS)

2009 – 2024
Board of Directors, Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy

2014 – 2015
Editor-in-Chief for Current �鶹����, Oxford Islamic Studies Online, Oxford �鶹���� Press

2010 – 2012
Advisory Board, Pew Research Center, Global Survey of Islam

2010 – 2011
Steering Committee, U.S. Global Citizen Diplomacy Initiative

2009 – 2010
NATO in Afghanistan Expert Advisory Group, Center for the Study of Congress and the Presidency, Washington DC

2008 – 2010
National Board of Advisors, Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, Washington DC

2005 – 2006
Advisory Board, Pew Study of Muslim Americans

Recent funded research��

2021-present: Primary Investigator, “New Approaches to Religion in U.S. Foreign Policy,” Henry Luce Foundation.

2018-present: Primary Investigator, “T��� Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey,” Carnegie Corporation of New York.

2017-2019: Co-Investigator, “Contextualizing Islam in Pluralistic Societies,” European Union.

2017-2020: Primary Investigator, “Transnational Religious Influence from the Middle East Workshop,” Henry Luce Foundation.

2017-2020: Primary Investigator, “Religion and International Affairs in a New Policy Environment,” Henry Luce Foundation.

2014-2015: Primary Investigator, “Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion & Diplomacy,” Henry Luce Foundation.

2014-2015: Co-Primary Investigator, “T��� Future of Islamism,” Henry Luce Foundation.

2014-2015: Co-Primary Investigator, “Teaching Connected Histories of the Mediterranean,” National Endowment for the Humanities.

2014-2015: Co-Primary Investigator, “Emerging Powers in Post-Conflict and Transitional Settings,” United States Institute of Peace.

2013-2015: Co-Primary Investigator, “Enhancing Publicly Engaged Scholarship in the Arab World,” The Carnegie Corporation of New York.

2013-2015: Co-Primary Investigator, “T��� Role of Religion in Foreign Policy & Processes of Societal Transformation,” British Council & Henry Luce Foundation.

2012-2015: Primary Investigator, “T��� Islamic Mediterranean & Modernity,” Social Sciences Research Council and the British Council.

2012-2014: Primary Investigator, “Bridging Cultures: The lslamic World,” National Endowment for the Humanities.

2007-2011: Co-Primary Investigator, ‘Global Migration and Transnational Politics,’ John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.��

2008-2010: Primary Investigator, ‘Transnational Islam in Europe,’ Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

2004-2010: Primary Investigator, ‘Globalization Dialogues Project,’ Vradenburg Foundation.

2008: Primary Investigator, ‘Transnational Islam in South & Southeast Asia,” National Bureau of Asian Research.

Professional & scholarly association memberships

American Academy of Religion (AAR)

American Political Science Association (APSA)

International Studies Association (ISA)

Middle East Studies Association (MESA)

The Muslim Institute (UK)

Fellow (elected) of the Royal Geographical Society (UK)

Service to the profession

Member, APSA Area Studies Liaison Group (Middle East Rep)

Member, Committee on Academic Freedom, Middle East Studies Association (2009-10)

Article & manuscript reviews for Princeton �鶹���� Press, Camrbidge �鶹���� Press, �鶹���� of Chicago Press, �鶹���� of North Carolina Press, Oxford �鶹���� Press, Routledge, American Political Science Review, International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Studies.

Journal editorial boards: Foreign Policy Bulletin (Cambridge �鶹���� Press), Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization (MIT Press), Cooperation & Conflict (Sage), Global Society (Taylor & Francis)

Research languages

French (fluent)

Arabic (proficient)