Mission Statement
Promoting individual dignity and freedom for people throughout the world by sponsoring high-quality independent research with a particular focus on the threats from extremism and radical ideologies.
History
The Westminster Institute was established in 2009 to promote individual dignity and freedom for people throughout the world by sponsoring high-quality research, with a particular focus on the threats from extremism and radical ideologies. The Westminster Institute is an independent non-profit organization that is funded by contributions from individuals and private foundations. It receives no government funding. The Institute holds briefings and events throughout the year. The events are free and open to the public. To receive notification of upcoming events and/or publications, please sign up for the Westminster Institute mailing list (here)
Contact
Email: br@westminster-institute.org or rrreilly@msn.com
Phone: 703-477-4655
Director
Robert R. Reilly is Director of the Westminster Institute. He has been on the board since its founding. In his 25 years of government service, he has taught at National Defense University (2007), and served in the Office of The Secretary of Defense, where he was Senior Advisor for Information Strategy (2002-2006). He participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 as Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of information. Before that, he was director of the Voice of America, where he had worked the prior decade. Mr. Reilly served in the White House as a Special Assistant to the President (1983-1985), and in the U.S. Information Agency both in D.C. and abroad. In the private sector, he spent more than seven years with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, as both national director and then president. He was on active duty as an armored cavalry officer for two years, and attended Georgetown University and the Claremont Graduate University. He has published widely on foreign policy, the “war of ideas”, and classical music.
Among his many publications are:
The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis, ISI Books, 2010.
Assessing War, “Assessing the War of Ideas during War,” Georgetown University Press, 2015.
Information Operations: Successes and Failures, Westminster Institute, 2014.
The Prospects and Perils of Catholic-Muslim Dialogue, Isaac Publishing, 2014.
Fighting the Ideological War, “Public Diplomacy in an Age of Global Terrorism,” Isaac Publishing, 2012
Afghan Endgames, “Shaping Strategic Communication,” Georgetown University Press, 2012.
Islam and the West: The Theology behind the History, CRCE Occasional Paper, London, 2011.
The Three Circles of War: Understanding the Dynamics of Conflict in Iraq, “Strategic Communications,” Potomac Books, 2010.
Ideas Matter: Restoring the Content of US Public Diplomacy, The Heritage Foundation, July, 2009.
Founder and Chairman
Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, Ph.D. D.D. is the Founder and Chairman of the Westminster Institute. He was the Director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, which conducts research into Islamic movements and trends in contemporary Islam, especially radical Islam and terrorism. Dr. Sookhdeo served as International Director of the Barnabas Fund, a relief and development agency channeling practical help and support to Christian minorities.
An author, lecturer, advisor and consultant on issues of war, conflict and society, Sookhdeo has been a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University UK, Senior Visiting Fellow at the Defence Academy, UK, and a Fellow of the Security Institute UK.
He received his Ph.D. from London University, School of Oriental and African Studies, D.D. by Western Seminary, Oregon, USA, validated by University of Oregon, for work on Pluralism, and D.D. by Nashotah House, Wisconsin, USA (Anglican Episcopal) for work on human rights and religious freedom.
He received the Coventry Cathedral International Prize for Peace and Reconciliation in 2001 and the Templeton UK project trust prize for progress in religion for his caring evangelistic ministry in the east end of London in Spring 1990.
Sookhdeo is the author of more than twenty books on Christian persecution, interfaith relations, and the threat of Islamic terrorism. His most recent book is The Death of Western Christianity: Drinking from the Poisoned Wells of the Cultural Revolution (2017) and Hated without a Reason: The Remarkable Story of Christian Persecution Over the Centuries (2019).
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