ICRD achieves its mission by meeting four core objectives:

• Decreasing religion’s role as a driver of conflict;
• Increasing the capacity and number of religious peacemakers;
• Increasing the role of religious clergy and laity in peacemaking;
• Increasing policy‐makers’ awareness of and receptivity to the potential contributions of religious actors.

ICRD applies the following strategies to achieve its four core objectives:

• Promoting spiritual values that delegitimize violence and intolerance;
• Advancing the field of peacemaking practice by integrating the contributions of religious actors;
• Facilitating resilient community networks for preventing and resolving conflicts;
• Expanding the capacity of civil society to support faith‐based peacemaking.

By combining innovative and traditional approaches, ICRD has developed a set of unique capabilities and methodologies for conducting faith‐based diplomacy to promote reconciliation and resolve differences. Included among these capabilities are:

• Identifying and applying faith doctrines that inspire empathy and reconciliation;
• Engaging excluded and ideologically-divided communities in constructive conversations;
• Facilitating relationships of trust and identifying new areas for collaboration;
• Conducting conflict analysis, particularly where religious considerations are salient;
• Reinforcing contemporary conflict resolution techniques with faith‐based practices.

ICRD develops the following program methodologies, orchestrates their application in the field, and analyzes their effectiveness:

Methodologies

• Strengthening the roles of both male and female religious adherents, across generations and traditions, in conflict resolution and countering violent religious extremism;
• Enhancing themes of tolerance in religious education curriculums and pedagogy;
• Identifying and leveraging shared spiritual values to support collaborative problem­‐solving and faith­‐based reconciliation;
• Facilitating the cooperative development of counter-­‐narratives to violent religious extremism;
• Formulating faith­‐based conflict resolution frameworks in concert with local partners;
• Training other prospective local trainers in applying faith-‐based methodologies.

Analysis

• Determining context­‐specific roles for religious stakeholders in the resolution of conflict and prevention of violent religious extremism;
• Codifying best­‐practices for engaging religious stakeholders in mitigating violent conflict;
• Mapping identity­‐based conflicts and how they are contributing to particular cases of instability.