This conference will serve as a platform for us to present the results of our research over the last five years and to discuss future directions of our research. This project was spearheaded by Samuel Huntington in 2001 as an effort to understand the interplay of religion and politics. As scholars interested in policy, we were dissatisfied with existing treatments of religion and global politics and so came together to conduct sustained scholarship on a variety of topics related to the issue. The topics to be discussed at the conference include religion and violence, religion and democratization, and religion and international order. The project was generously funded by the Smith Richardson Foundation and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. It will take place at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.