Military Chaplains primarily serve the pastoral needs of our soldiers in the military. Less utilized is their potential as peace actors able to navigate the religious landscape within the contexts in which they are deployed. The Chaplain to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff noted that a standardized training in Inter-Religious Dialogue (IRD) for strategic-level Combatant Command Chaplains would greatly aid their readiness to engage with actors of different faiths and improve their capacity to advise their Commander on religious matters.

CIT and USIP piloted a day-long introductory training on IRD and interreligious conflict assessment for 22 U.S. Combatant Command Chaplains and Command Religious Affairs Advisors to help military Chaplains become more comfortable with thoughtfully engaging religious actors.