Gregorio Bettiza is a Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow at the European University Institute (EUI). Gregorio earned his PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 2012. His research interests are in sociological approaches to international relations (IR) theory, religion, civilizational analysis, and non-liberal norms and identities in international relations, with an area focus on American foreign policy, transatlantic relations, and the Middle East. Gregorio is currently writing a book exploring the causes and consequences of the unprecedented "operationalization" of religion in American foreign policy since the end of the Cold War.