Michael D. Driessen is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science and International Affairs at John Cabot University, Rome, where he also directs the University’s Interfaith Initiative. He received his doctorate from the University of Notre Dame and was a Post-doctoral Fellow at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Doha, Qatar. He has published the book Religion and Democratization (2014), and his articles have appeared in Comparative Politics, Sociology of Religion, Politics and Religion, and Democratization. In 2019, he was a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Fiesole, Italy, where he completed a manuscript entitled The Global Politics of  Interreligious Dialogue. Prof. Driessen also serves as an advisor for the Adyan Foundation.