Blessing America First

Weaving first-hand personal experience with dispassionate scholarly analysis and methodological rigor, Buckley's book offers a masterful account of the Trump presidency's populist approach to religion in foreign policy. Highly recommended to students, scholars, policymakers, and anyone interested in the evolving nexus between faith, politics, and American diplomacy. -- Gregorio Bettiza, author of <i>Finding Faith in Foreign Policy: Religion and American Diplomacy in a Postsecular World</i> David Buckley has written a remarkable book that is noteworthy not only for its rich empirical account of efforts to integrate religion into American diplomacy—profitably drawing on the author's first-hand experience serving in government—but also for generating highly original and important insights about the encounter between populist politics, bureaucracy, and the making of foreign policy. Essential reading for anyone interested in the intersection of religion and foreign affairs. -- Peter Mandaville, United States Institute of Peace David Buckley's Blessing America First is a hugely important book. It sheds so much light on areas that have received little academic and journalistic attention: the growing role of religion in American diplomacy over a long period, and the radical substantive and bureaucratic transformations around these issues during the Trump years. This is also an extraordinary participant-observer study, since Buckley was able to see the transition between the Obama and Trump administrations firsthand as an academic fellow in the state department. Buckley's account—smart, eye-opening, and constructive—deserves a very wide audience. And here's hoping that future policymakers pay attention to his guidance. -- E.J. Dionne, Jr., author of <i>Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country</i>