Thomas Farr and the complexities of religious freedom

Thanks to Michael P. for the link to the (always interesting) "Immanent Frame."  While it is always possible -- indeed, it is usually likely -- that "issues are even more complicated and contested than [I] realize," I am confident that Thomas Farr (to whose commentary I linked this morning) appreciates fully all the relevant ins-and-outs.  Here is Mr. Farr's biography: 

Thomas F. Farr, a former American diplomat, is Visiting Associate Professor of Religion and World Affairs, and Senior Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs. During his career in the Foreign Service, Dr. Farr specialized in strategic military policy, political affairs and religious freedom. During the Cold War he helped develop U.S. strategic nuclear policy, and was part of the U.S. negotiating team in the U.S.-Soviet arms control talks in Geneva. In the 1990s he served in Bonn, negotiated the value of U.S. military bases being returned to Germany, and focused on Greek-Turkish-Cyprus relations. During the last four years of his career Farr served as the first director of the State Department's office of international religious freedom. In that capacity he traveled worldwide to engage governments and religious communities on the subject of religious freedom. Dr. Farr has taught history at the U.S. Military Academy and international relations at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He has written widely on America's international religious freedom policy and U.S. national security, as well as on the development of the Catholic doctrine of religious liberty.

 

Here is a link to the Amazon page where one can purchase Mr. Farr's Oxford University Press book, "World of Faith and Freedom:  Why International Religious Liberty Is Vital to American National Security."