What Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs does

The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs is a non-profit academic research center established in 2006 and housed at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to advance knowledge and cooperation through research, teaching, and dialogue on religion and global affairs. The center organizes its work around five thematic programs: interreligious and intercultural dialogue, religion and global development, faith in diplomacy and politics, the Catholic Church's evolving role in world affairs, and dialogue across difference in education. It produces no commercial software; instead, its core outputs are the Berkley Forum blog, the multi-year Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power research project, the Strategic Religious Engagement Hub digital resource, podcasts, videos, working papers, policy briefs, and conferences including the long-running Building Bridges Seminar series (currently in its 24th year).

The center offers student-facing programming including the Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs Minor, Doyle Dialogue Fellows, Graduate Fellows, the Women Faith Leaders Fellowship, and partnerships with the Pulitzer Center on international reporting fellowships. Senior research leadership includes Peter Mandaville (Senior Research Fellow leading the Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power project, with prior roles at the U.S. State Department and USAID) and Judd Birdsall (Senior Fellow and director of the Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion and Diplomacy, Cambridge Ph.D. and former State Department official).

The center's business model is grant- and donation-funded rather than revenue-generating. It does not charge for any of its programs, events, publications, or resources. Operating support comes from Georgetown University as the parent institution, foundation grants (notably the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Henry Luce Foundation for the Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power project), and individual donations solicited in memory of William R. Berkley. Co-development partnerships with the Brookings Institution, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and Nanyang Technological University extend the center's research distribution. It serves a horizontally segmented audience of Georgetown students, policymakers, journalists, religious leaders and activists, and educators across seven global regions.

Name

Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs

Legal name

Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs

Website

https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs is a non-profit academic research center at Georgetown University that advances knowledge on religion's role in global affairs through research, teaching, and interfaith dialogue, serving students, policymakers, journalists, religious leaders, and educators worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Research and Policy Analysis on Religion and Global Affairs

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (541720), Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813), Religious Organizations (8131)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700)

akta.pro primary industry

Social Sciences & Public Policy Research Universities (EDAHABAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Interfaith & Ecumenical Councils and Dialogue Organizations (BPAGAJAJ), Theological Universities & Pontifical Universities (EDAHAKAD), Campus Spiritual & Religious Life (EDALAHAI)

Keywords

• Academic research center
• Religion and global affairs
• Interreligious dialogue
• Policy analysis research
• Fellowship programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Foundation Grants: The Berkley Center receives funding from foundations such as the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Henry Luce Foundation to support research projects and programs including the Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power project.

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs is an academic research center at Georgetown University that produces and disseminates scholarly research, educational programs, and dialogue platforms on the role of religion in global affairs. It offers fellowship programs, a minor in Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs, multi-year research projects such as the Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power initiative, publications, and convenings that serve students, policymakers, journalists, educators, and religious leaders worldwide.

Product overview

The Berkley Center offers a portfolio of academic programs, research projects, publications, and forums focused on advancing knowledge about religion's role in global affairs. The core offerings include the Berkley Forum (a blog platform), student fellowship programs (Doyle Dialogue Fellows, Religion Ethics and World Affairs Minor, Women Faith Leaders Fellowship), and research initiatives (Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power Project, Strategic Religious Engagement Hub). These products function as educational and research resources rather than commercial software products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Berkley Forum: The center's blog platform for commentary and discussion on religion, peace, and world affairs topics
• Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power Project
• Women Faith Leaders Fellowship
• Doyle Dialogue Fellows
• Strategic Religious Engagement Hub

Products and services

• Berkley Forum

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and significant.

• Brookings InstitutioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCooperates with the Berkley Center on policy-oriented outputs from the Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power project. Some outputs are co-published and disseminated through the Brookings Institution.
• United States Institute of Peace (USIP)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSince 2022, a partnership between the Berkley Center's Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power project and USIP has focused on understanding how the geopolitics of religion shapes peace and conflict dynamics in particular regional and country settings.
• Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)significantStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with the Berkley Center and USIP on the Geopolitics of Religion and Culture in Asia thematic series, exploring motivations, effectiveness, and impact of various geopolitical actors in Asia.
• Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion and DiplomacysignificantStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe network brings together European and North American diplomats whose portfolios focus on religion and diplomacy. Judd Birdsall serves as project director and senior fellow at the Berkley Center.
• Georgetown UniversitycoreOthersThe Berkley Center is an integral part of Georgetown University, a Jesuit institution in Washington, D.C. The center benefits from the university's academic infrastructure, student body, and mission.

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Atlantic Council: U.S. foreign-policy think tank addressing global issues including religion and geopolitics. Broad incumbent that increasingly addresses faith in international affairs as part of wider programming, with substantially larger research staff and policy-publishing infrastructure than the Berkley Center.
• Council on Foreign Relations (CFR): Established U.S. foreign-policy membership organization producing research and convening leaders. Broad incumbent in international affairs whose work occasionally intersects with religion and global affairs but whose scope is far broader than the Berkley Center's specialized focus.
• Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS): Large bipartisan policy organization addressing foreign policy, security, and international affairs. Broad incumbent that addresses religion in foreign policy as part of its wider portfolio rather than as a central specialization, but competes for the same policymaker and foundation funder attention.

Direct peers

• Brookings Institution: Major U.S. policy research organization conducting independent analysis on foreign policy and international affairs. Direct peer because Brookings co-publishes and disseminates outputs from the Berkley Center's Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power project and addresses overlapping foreign-policy and religion topics.
• Pew Research Center: Nonpartisan fact tank producing empirical research on religion, politics, and social trends. Direct peer in religion-focused public-interest research, with comparable audience among journalists, policymakers, and educators, though Pew's methodology is more survey-driven.
• United States Institute of Peace: U.S. federal institution dedicated to conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Direct peer given its 2022 partnership with the Berkley Center on the Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power project and overlapping focus on religion's role in peace and conflict dynamics globally.
• Wilson Center (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars): U.S. Congressional-affiliated policy research center focused on global issues. Direct peer operating as a nonpartisan think tank addressing religion, international affairs, and public policy from a Washington, D.C. base with comparable academic-policy audience.
• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Global think tank producing independent analysis on international politics and diplomacy. Direct peer given its parallel focus on religion in foreign affairs and global governance, sharing overlapping funder relationships (Carnegie Corporation of New York) and policy audience.

Emerging players

• Interfaith America (formerly Interfaith Youth Core): Nonprofit organization advancing interfaith cooperation and dialogue across civic and educational settings. Emerging player with overlapping mission in interreligious dialogue and engagement, but operates primarily as a practitioner network rather than a policy research center.
• Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service: Georgetown University's primary academic unit for international affairs education and research. Internal sibling institution operating within the same university, with overlapping faculty networks and student talent pipelines, though its focus is broader graduate-level foreign-service education.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/guberkleycenter
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/berkleycenter
• Facebookfacebook.com/berkleycenter
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/school/berkley-center-for-religion-peace-and-world-affairs
• Instagraminstagram.com/guberkleycenter

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs