Peter Mandaville
Peter Mandaville
Director
Professor of International Affairs
Islam, international relations, religion, development
Dr. Peter Mandaville is Professor of International Affairs in the Schar School of Policy and Government and Director of the AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies (ACGIS) in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) at George Mason University. From 2024-25 he served as the Director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and Senior Advisor for Faith Engagement at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). From 2022-24 he was Senior Advisor for Religion and Inclusive Societies at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). His prior government experience includes serving as a member of the U.S. State Department's Policy and Planning Staff (2010-12) and as a Senior Advisor in the Secretary of State's Office of Religion and Global Affairs (2015-16). He has also been a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Pew Research Center, and has held affiliations with the RAND Corporation and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is the author or editor of the books The Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power (2023), Wahhabism and the World (2022), Islam & Politics (Third Edition, 2020) and Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma (2001) as well as many journal articles, book chapters, and op-ed/commentary pieces in outlets such as the International Herald Tribune, The Guardian, The Atlantic and Foreign Policy. He has testified multiple times before the U.S. Congress on topics including political Islam and human rights in the Middle East. His research has been supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Henry Luce Foundation.
Current Research
Mandaville's recent work focuses on the intersection of religion and international relations and, more specifically, the geopolitical dimensions of religion as an instrument of statecraft.
Selected Publications
The Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power: How States Use Religion in Foreign Policy, New York: Oxford University Press, 2023 (editor)
Wahhabism and the World: Understanding Saudi Arabia's Global Influence on Islam, New York: Oxford University Press, 2022 (editor)
Islam & Politics, New York & London: Routledge, Third Edition, 2020.
Global Political Islam, New York & London: Routledge, 2007 (2nd edition, 2011).
Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma, London: Routledge, 2001 (revised paperback edition, 2003).
Globalizing Religions, Newbury Park: Sage, 2009 (co-edited with Paul James).
The Zen of International Relations: IR Theory From East to West, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001 (co-edited with Stephen Chan & Roland Bleiker).
Meaning and International Relations, London: Routledge, 2003 (co-edited with Andrew Williams).
Transnational conceptions of Islamic community: national and religious subjectivities; Nations & Nationalism, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2011.
‘Think Locally, Act Globally: Diasporas & Transnational Politics,’ International Political Sociology, Vol. 4, No. 2, June 2010.
‘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.
‘Globalization and the Politics of Religious Knowledge: Pluralizing Authority in the Muslim World,’ Theory, Culture and Society, Vol. 24, No. 2, Spring 2007.
‘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 University Press, 2nd Edition, 2009.
‘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 University Press, 2007.
‘Sufis & Salafis: The Political Discourse of Transnational Islam’ in Robert Hefner (ed.), Remaking Muslim Politics, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.
Dissertations Supervised
Randa Kayyali, Arab Christian Identity in the United States (2013)