Dialogue between different faiths is increasingly being used as a means of harnessing religions’ capacity to promote coexistence and shared values. The effectiveness of dialogue is rarely considered and in any case, is hard to measure.

This paper wants to consider some international initiatives that have arguably achieved limited success and discuss why they failed and whether this failure is to be linked to the initiatives themselves or whether it is symptomatic of the top-down interfaith venture. Questions such as the role of political alliances, the possibility of the trickle-down effect, intended audience, personal motivations and finances will be considered.