About Charles Strohmer

Bio Brief

Charles Strohmer is the author of seven books, published in the U.S. and the U.K., and a worldview perspectives analyst in the wisdom tradition, in which he explores the relvance of wisdom for today's complex, changing, and pluralistic world. He has written for the BBC on American government and Christian religion and authored  numerous publications on a wide variety of topics (Articles). His focus in recent years has been on issues of wisdom in religion and politics in the context of U.S. International Relations and Foreign Policy in the Middle East. He is also the founding publisher (1998) and editor of Openings, an alternative magazine-journal.

For more than twenty-five years, his books, articles, seminars, and
small group discussions have helped specialists in various fields advance wisdom-based approaches to issues in education, family and social life, relationships, the business world, environmental stewardship, government responsibility, and especially the arts, communication, religion, and spirituality. His specialist knowledge of America, religion, and worldview anaylsis has made him a go-to person for understanding the nexus of faith and U.S. relations with Israel and the Muslim Middle East. Since 9/11, most of his writings and talks have focused on turning point events, actors, and policies within this context (see International Relations and Foreign Policy).       

Inspired by his moving experience the morning of 9/11 (see the essay The Kindness of Strangers), and by the world-historical political and religious ramifications of that day, Charles began The Wisdom Project to address timely and important issues in which wisdom-based ideas and practices could be applied in our post-9/11 changed world to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. In this context, The Wisdom Project seeks, in part, to revitalize the historic but long-neglected wisdom tradition as a vital contributor to Washington's desire to understand the role of religion in its relations with the Muslim world. "The significance of this approach can be felt today," Charles has said, "when one considers that wisdom reasoning emphasizes relationships, and by doing that it gives equal place at the table to the four main U.S. and Middle East actors: Muslims, Jews, Christians, and secularists."

Now a Visiting Research Fellow of the Center for Public Justice (Washington, DC, and Annapolis: www.cpjustice.org), Charles is developing The Wisdom Project further, as an open-ended, collaborative, nonpartisan initiative with many aspects, including roundtables, workshops, seminars, talks, articles, and policy proposals, with its primary goal being the completion his new book, which offers ideas for developing a wisdom-based foreign policy between the U.S. and the Middle East. CPJ is an independent, nonpartisan think tank that works on policy issues with public officials and nongovernmental organizations in Washington.

Charles Strohmer has appeared on numerous radio and television programs in the U.S. and the U.K., and he has spoken in many diverse settings in North America, Britain, and Europe. His first book, published in 1988, was translated into several languages. During the 1990s he also worked as a freelance editor on dozens of books. One of these books won a First Place Gold Medallion Award and another was a runner-up. An American, he lived in the U.K. for three years, where he continues to publish and accept invitations to speak since moving back to the States.