Bettiza is currently working on a new book project developing the concept of sacred capital to theorize and understand the entanglements between religion, states, and power in global politics today. These are themes that he also recently addressed and explored in a working-paper and two co-authored book chapters for the Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power Project (2018-2023), a joint initiative between the Berkley Center at Georgetown University and The Brookings Institution. This research builds on Bettiza’s first monograph which investigated why and how US foreign policymakers have increasingly sought to systematically understand and manage global religious dynamics since the end of the Cold War.