Driessen Michael

Michael Driessen is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at John Cabot University in Rome, where he directs the Master’s programme in International Affairs.

He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion at the University of Notre Dame.

He obtained his  MA in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins University–SAIS (2005) and his PhD in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame (2011). Following his PhD, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University in Qatar, and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence.

His research focuses on the relationship between religion and politics, democratisation, interfaith dialogue and peace processes in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. He is director of the Rome Summer Seminars on Religion and Global Politics, affiliated with the Von Hügel Institute at the University of Cambridge, and an adviser to the Adyan Foundation in Lebanon.

His major works include Religion and Democratisation (2014) and The Global Politics of Interreligious Dialogue (2023). In 2026, he was appointed consultant to the Holy See’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.