Michael Barnett will speak about his newest book, The Star and the Stripes: A History of the Foreign Policies of American Jews for the Religion and Politics in American Public Life series.

The Religion and Politics in American Public Life lecture series, begun in the Spring semester of 2013 by Karen Barkey, Jean Cohen, and John Torpey, is a series of public conversations that explore the often contentious role of religion in American political and public life.  Each session features a speaker presenting on a timely, topical intersection of religion with American politics and society, such as civil religion, public discourses of morality, and reproductive and sexual rights.

Now in its fourth year, the series is jointly sponsored by the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life and the Department of Religion at Columbia University.

---

Michael Barnett is University Professor of International Affairs and Political Science at the George Washington University. His research interests include the Middle East, humanitarian action, global governance, global ethics, and the United Nations. Among his many books are Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda; Dialogues in Arab Politics: Negotiations in Regional Order; Empire of Humanity: A History of Humanitarianism; Rules for the World: International Organizations in World Politics (with Martha Finnemore); Security Communities (co-edited with Emanuel Adler); Sacred Aid (co-edited with Janice Stein);Power and Global Governance (co-edited with Raymond Duvall); and Humanitarianism in Question (co-edited with Thomas Weiss). 
Currently, he is an Associate Editor of International Organization.  His current research projects range from international paternalism, the changing architecture of global governance, to the relationship between human rights and humanitarianism. His most recent book is The Star and the Stripes: A History of the Foreign Policies of the American Jews (Princeton University Press).