Detailed Author Bio

Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love is a tenured Associate Professor of International Relations in the Politics Department of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. She is on the Core Group for the Department of State’s working group on Religion and Foreign Policy, charged with making recommendations to the Secretary of State and the Federal Advisory Commission on how the US government can better engage with civil society and religious actors in foreign policy.  She served as  a Fellow at the Commission on International Religious Freedom, where she is working with the Foreign Service Institute in creating new training and education materials on religion and foreign policy.   USCIRF was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and the Congress. She teaches graduate and undergraduate International Relations courses at Catholic University and the Pentagon, such as Security, Peace Studies, Just Peace, U.S. Foreign Policy, Terrorism, Globalization, and The Problem of Sovereignty. Her recent International Relations books include Beyond Sovereignty: Issues for a Global Agenda (4th Edition, 2011), Morality Matters: Ethics and the War on Terrorism (forthcoming at Cornell University Press), “What Kind of Peace Do We Seek?” a book chapter on peacebuilding, in Notre Dame University’s volume on The Ethics and Theology of Peacebuilding (Orbis 2011), “The Church and Global Governance” chapter for a Vatican book volume on Pacem in Terris, and “Women, Religion, and Peace” chapter for a U.S. Institute of Peace book Exploring the Invisible.

She serves on: the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ International Justice and Peace Committee, where she advises the bishops on international affairs and U.S. foreign policy, and engages in advocacy with the U.S. government; the Advisory Board of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, a network of practitioners, academics, clergy, and laity from around the world in the field of Catholic peacebuilding; the board and Communications Committee of Jesuit Refugee Services, an international refugee relief and advocacy group active in over 60 countries.

An alumna of the Johns Hopkins University (PhD), the University of Texas at Austin (MA), and St. Joseph’s University in Philadelpha (BA), Dr. Love is a frequent speaker on international affairs issues, as when she spoke on Religious Peacebuilding at the Vatican and at the United Nations. She is a columnist for America magazine and a recipient of the 2009 Best Columnist Catholic Press Award. As a former Pew Faculty Fellow and a current consultant for Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Dr. Love regularly gives faculty development workshops on religion and world politics, and case and participatory teaching techniques.

 She serves on the editorial board of Rowman & Littlefield’s New Millennium book series.  She was a fellow at the U.S. Naval Academy’s Center for Military Ethics 2002-2003, is a former governing board member of Women in International Security, and is the founder of the Political Psychology Section of the American Political Science Association. 

Maryann Cusimano Love lives on the Chesapeake Bay outside of Washington, DC, with her husband Richard and three young children, Maria, Ricky, and Ava, who inspire her New York Times best-selling children’s books, You Are My I Love You, You Are My Miracle, You Are My Wish, You Are My Wonders, and Sleep, Baby, Sleep.