Peter Mandaville

Peter Mandaville

Peter Mandaville

Professor of International Affairs

Islam, globalization, development, international relations

Dr. Peter Mandaville is Professor of International Affairs in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. From 2015-2016 he served as Senior Adviser in the Secretary of State’s Office of Religion & Global Affairs at the U.S. Department of State where he led that office’s work on ISIS and sectarian conflict in the Middle East. He has also been a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Pew Research Center. From 2011-12 he served as a member of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Policy Planning Staff where he helped to shape the U.S. response to the Arab Uprisings. He is the author of the books 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 comparative study of religious authority and social movements in the Muslim world, with an emphasis on youth groups, transnational networks, and new media.

Selected Publications

Islam & Politics, New York & London: Routledge, 2014 (Updated and revised edition of Global Political Islam).

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)