Manlio Graziano

Manlio Graziano just had a new book released in Italy: L’Isola al centro del mondo. Une geopolitica degli Stati Uniti [The Island in the Center of the World. The Geopolitics of the United States] (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2018). Using the lens of geopolitics, Professor Graziano provides an in-depth study of the US from the Founding Fathers to Donald Trump.

Starting with the foundations of ‘American Exceptionalism’, Graziano traces the patterns of the US foreign policies over the past centuries. He goes on to examine the country’s nationalist and isolationist foreign policy today, and its impact on the country’s long-term position and relations with the international community. The book incidentally challenges some of the commonplaces in the representation of the country’s domestic and international policies.

Manlio Graziano’s study concludes on a relative decline of the US hegemony, questioning the validity of President Trump’s 'great again' rhetoric. He writes: "Today, a shift in the relative strength of the poles is combining with the emergence of new poles: the lines of force are shifting and the field of international relations is changing at an extraordinarily rapid pace. The American ruling class still seems unable to measure the phenomena that will lead to the end of its global hegemony, and another “lost decade” looms on the horizon. To try to soften the inevitable consequences, they need to put aside the ideological mythologies of American Exceptionalism, to forget about being 'great again', and to practice more geopolitics instead."

See book description on publisher's website

Professor Graziano specializes in geopolitics and geopolitics of religion. He has authored several books on various geopolitical issues, including In Rome We Trust. The Rise of Catholics in American Political Life (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017), Holy Wars and Holy Alliance. The Return of Religion to the Global Political Stage (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017), and What is a Border (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018). He is currently working on his next book on the relevance of geopolitics as a tool to understand the world.

Manlio Graziano’s latest book, What is a Border?, was just released by Stanford University Press this month. In this book, Professor Graziano looks at the current evolution of the world order toward a reinstatement of the importance of borders after market integration and political and monetary unions marked the past three decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall. He provides a geopolitical and historical analysis of this phenomenon and asks whether it is “an out-of-step, deceptive last gasp of national sovereignty or the victory of the weight of history over the power of place”. In the end, Graziano warns that this comeback of borders “does not mean that they will resolve any problems” and rather looks at them as “dangerous fault lines in the contemporary world”. As Professor of Politics Ronnie Lipschutz from University of California Santa Cruz puts it: "Manlio Graziano makes clear the role of borders as symptoms of growing disorder rather than as causes."

What is a Border? was originally published in Italian under the title Frontiere by Italy’s leading social sciences publisher Il Mulino in March 2017.

See more details on What is a Border? on Stanford University Press website

Professor Manlio Graziano is the author of a dozen books on geopolitics and geopolitics of religion, including In Rome We Trust. The Rise of Catholics in American Political Life (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017), and Holy Wars and Holy Alliance. The Return of Religion to the Global Political Stage (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017). He is currently working on finishing his next book on the geopolitics of the United States, to be published next month by Il Mulino, and a chapter on religion and politics for an edited volume to be published by Routledge.

Update on February 28: link to Manlio Graziano's article on the Stanford University Press blog

Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) has invited Professor Graziano to present his recent book In Rome We Trust: The Rise of Catholicism in American Political Life (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017) on December 8th.

Sharing the panel with Professor Graziano will be Donald Jensen, Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University, John Gizzi, Chief Political Correspondent for NewsMax Media, and John Farina, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University. Moderating the panel will be Emiliano Bos, journalist, Washington Correspondent for the Swiss public radio and television network RSI.

Manlio Graziano has been conducting research about geopolitics of religion for over two decades, developing the idea that even in countries operating under a separation of Church and State, religion has had a major impact on internal politics as well as on international relations. In this book, he explores the reciprocal influence between the United States and the Catholic Church. “This book examines the unusually serene relationship between the chief global superpower and the world's most ancient and renowned institution. The "Catholicization" of the United States is a recent phenomenon: some believe it began during the Reagan administration; others feel it emerged under George W. Bush's presidency. What is certain is that the Catholic presence in the American political ruling class was particularly prominent in the Obama administration: over one third of cabinet members, the Vice President, the White House Chief of Staff, the heads of Homeland Security and the CIA, the Director and deputy Director of the FBI, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other top military officers were all Roman Catholic. Challenging perceived wisdom that the American Catholic Church is in crisis and that the political religion in the United States is Evangelicalism, Manlio.Graziano provides an engaging account of the tendency of Catholics to play an increasingly significant role in American politics, as well as the rising role of American prelates in the Roman Catholic Church.”

In Rome we Trust is one of the three books that Manlio Graziano published this year. Holy Wars and Holy Alliance, The Return of Religion to the Global Political Stage, published by Columbia University Press in April 2017, examines the resurgence of religion in world politics and its increasingly important role in social, economic and political spheres that had recently been dominated by secular ideologies. It places a particular focus on the Catholic Church’s efforts to promote dialogue between world religions and to strengthen its own influence on international politics.

Borders was published in Italian by Il Mulino in March 2017. It looks at the current evolution of the world order toward a reinstatement of the importance of borders after the past three decades, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, were marked by market integration and political and monetary unions. An English translation of Borders was done by Stanford University Press and will be published in 2018.

An impressively prolific author, AGS’s specialist of geopolitics and geopolitics of religion Manlio Graziano has just published three books: two in the US – with Stanford University Press and Columbia University Press – and one in Italy, with the leading publisher in political science Il Mulino.

Holy Wars and Holy Alliance, The Return of Religion to the Global Political Stage was released by Columbia University Press in April. It examines the resurgence of religion in world politics and its increasingly important role in social, economic and political spheres that had recently been dominated by secular ideologies. It places a particular focus on the Catholic Church’s efforts to promote dialogue between world religions and to strengthen its own influence on international politics.

See book description on Columbia University website

In Rome We Trust. The Rise of Catholics in American Political Life was released by Stanford University Press in March. Keeping in with Graziano’s favored theme on the links between religion and international relations, it examines the particular case of the relationship between the United States and the Catholics. It argues that Catholics have played an increasingly significant role in American politics, if not since the Reagan presidency, at least since the Obama administration.

See book description on Stanford University Press website

Frontiere (Borders) was published in Italian by Il Mulino in March. It looks at the current evolution of the world order toward a reinstatement of the importance of borders after the past three decades, since the Fall of the Berlin Wall, were marked by market integration and political and monetary unions. An English translation was done by Stanford University Press and will be published in 2018.

See book on Il Mulino website

Manlio Graziano will hold a book presentation at the American Graduate School in Paris in the Fall.

Update on May 24th: about the topic of the relations between religion and politics, read Manlio Graziano's article on the Stanford University Press Blog about President Trump's recent visit to the Pope

Professor Manlio Graziano recently participated in three seminars on the geopolitics of religion at universities in Italy: University of Bologna (History department) and University La Sapienza in Rome (Political Science and History departments). He discussed the impact of the geopolitics of religion, especially that of the Catholic Church, on international relations, and the relationship between religious and political borders.

Manlio Graziano is a specialist of geopolitics and geopolitics of religion––having been the founder of the latter discipline. He published several books on the subject, and is expecting the forthcoming publication of his three latest books: In Rome We Trust (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, forthcoming 2017), Holy Wars or Holy Alliances (New York: Columbia University Press, forthcoming 2017), and Frontiere (In Italian; Bologna: Il Mulino, forthcoming 2017). The release of these books will be announced here. 

Prof. Manlio Graziano's new book, In Rome We Trust. The Rise of the Catholics in American Politics (working title), has been accepted for publication by Stanford University Press. Prof. Graziano’s book examines the role of the Catholics in political, judicial and military institutions in the United States, leading to the question of whether a more Catholic United States would better cope with the impending geopolitical shift of power.

Manlio Graziano explains: "Fifty-five years ago, a Catholic candidate for the US presidency was forced to declare publicly that he never received orders from the pope; Today, the US political leaders count among them many Catholics, and no one seems to even notice. A hundred years ago, freedom of conscience represented absolute evil to the Catholic Church; Today, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness seem to have become its new mantra. This phenomenon reflects more than time making old taboos less taboo. The United States politics are increasingly dominated by Catholics, and the Catholic Church is increasingly influenced by the Americans. Are the two ‘parallel empires’, as Massimo Franco put it, destined to converge? In fact, the two century-old relationship between the United States and the Catholic Church has been essentially characterized by mutual suspicion and outright hostility, and, after the end of the First World War, by strong competition on the ground of moral leadership in the world. The Church and the United States are both convinced they embody a manifest destiny willed by God; but it is not the same God, and it is certainly a different fate." See his article on the subject (published in Italian ).

A specialist of geopolitics and geopolitics of religion, Manlio Graziano teaches these two subjects as part of the International Relations and Diplomacy programs at AGS and has authored several books in English, Italian, Spanish and French. His latest book, Holy War and Holy Alliance: Religions and International Disorder in the 21st Century , is to be released by Columbia University Press in the coming months. In April, Prof. Graziano will be the keynote panel moderator of AGS's annual international conference, on the theme of the Complexity of Religion in International Relations (AGS International Graduate Student Conference, 21-22 April in Paris: see more information here ).

On November 12th-14th, Professor Manlio Graziano participated in an international conference on the Mediterranean region hosted by the State University of New York (Stony Brook University). His paper, entitled " 'Mare Nostrum' in a Multipolar World: Geopolitical Analysis of a Superfluity of Claims", provided a geopolitical approach to the Mediterranean region's diversity and commonalities. Other participants included international Mediterranean Studies scholars from universities in the United States (Princeton, Columbia, UCSB, San Diego State), France, Italy, and others, along with writers, government officials, and UN Ambassadors.

The objective of the conference was to exchange ideas and pursue a reflection on the importance of recognizing the identity of the Mediterranean basin as a region with an original culture beyond the fragmented cultures that compose it: "The Mediterranean is the cradle of civilizations with a unique history of having given birth to all the Western cultures, to three world-wide religions, and to opening pathways to the Orient. An organic and autonomous Mediterranean identity may not exist as such today; but in the collective imagination of the people of the world and especially in the last two centuries with migrations from the Mediterranean area settling throughout the entire world, there exists a "popolo mediterraneo." Globalization has made evident the importance of preserving culture and the development of a consciousness that especially constitutes a matchless resource for the nations of the Mediterranean, and which the new Europe cannot do without." (Stony Brook University's conference website)

In December, Professor Graziano also headed a seminar on Geopolitics of Religions at Department of Political Science of the Universiy of Turin in Italy. The seminar included a general introduction to the geopolitics of religions and a special course on Islam, as well as a roundtable with other professors, organized by the PIero Calamandrei Center in Turin.

More on the University of Turin

Manlio Graziano was invited by the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) to present his latest book: Holy War and Holy Alliance: Religions and International Disorder in the 21st Century, published by Columbia University Press (2015). The event will take place at the UN headquarters in New York on June 17th. Introducing Prof. Graziano will be Brian Knowlton, retired New York Times correspondent based in DC.

Manlio Graziano's book addresses the relationship between religion and politics in world affairs, in the context of this troubled era of shifting balance of power. It shows how this relationship is often seen in a partial perspective emphasizing only Islam and some of its most fundamentalist versions, while over the past decades, all traditional religions have reentered the political arena. Various theories of international relations have been formed about this phenomenon, such as that of the “clash of civilizations.” The author demonstrates that the “holy war” is but one form of the interference of religions with politics, and questions the possibility of a “holy alliance” between the main global religions, aimed at bringing a “universal morality” in the heart of the polis. Prof. Graziano's book was published in Italian earlier this year, under the title Guerra Santa e Santa Alleanza: Religioni e disordine internazionale nel XXI secolo, by Italy's leading publisher of political works, Il Mulino (Bologna).

Manlio Graziano, PhD, teaches Geopolitics and Geopolitics of Religions at The University of La Sorbonne (Paris IV) and at the American Graduate School in Paris. He is a columnist for La Voce Di New York, an online news publication targeted at the Italian community in the US. He also collaborates with the national Italian daily Corriere della Sera, as well as the geaopolitics journal Limes in Rome, and the International Affairs Forum in Washington DC). He is the author of several books in English, Italian, French and Spanish, including The Failure of Italian Nationhood: The Geopolitics of a Troubled Identity (Palgrave-Macmillan, New York, 2010), Il secolo cattolico. La strategia geopolitica della Chiesa (Rome, 2010; Barcelona, 2012), and Italie. Un État sans nation? Géopolitique d’une identité nationale incertaine (Toulouse, Eres, 2007). He is currently writing a book about the role of Catholics in American politics (In Rome We Trust, working title), which will be published in 2016 by Stanford University Press (in English) and by Il Mulino (in Italian).

Founded in 1948, the UNCA is the organization representing the United Nations press corps, and the Secretary-General is based on an agreement dated, September 16th, 1995 and embodied in the UNCA constitution. From its inception, UNCA worked to bring correspondents, members of diplomatic delegations and the Department of Public Information together by organizing press conferences, social functions, luncheons and an annual awards event.

Professor Graziano authored two articles in the February 8th issue of the leading Italian national newspaper Corriere della Sera. Both articles relate to the idea of a current crisis of the Nation-State, and the necessity to update our interpretation of international politics. One article focusing on the aspect of tribes appeared in the foreign affairs section of the newspaper; the other, focusing on borders, appeared in the weekly literature supplement. Corriere della Sera is the oldest Italian newspaper, and the one with the highest distribution (not including sports newspapers).

See article in the Foreign Affairs section

See article in the Literature weekly supplement

Manlio Graziano is a specialist of geopolitics. He is the author of The Failure of Italian Nationhood: The Geopolitics of a Troubled Identity (New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010) and several other books in English, Italian, and French. His last book, which is about the role of religion in international relations, was just released in January by Italy's leading publisher of political works Il Mulino, (Guerra Santa o Santa Alleanza, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2015.) and will be presented in France at AGS on April 22. An English version will be published in the United States by Columbia University Press (Holy War or Holy Alliance, New york: Columbia University Press, forthcoming: 2015).

See Manlio Graziano's profile

Professor Graziano's latest book on the relationship between religion and politics is coming out in Italian this month, under the title Guerra Santa e Santa Alleanza: Religioni e disordine internazionale nel XXI secolo (release date: January 15th). It is published by Italy's leading publisher of political works, Il Mulino (Bologna). The English version will be published this year by Columbia University Press under the title Holy War and Holy Alliance: Religions and International Disorder in the 21st Century.

This book addresses the relationship between religion and politics in this troubled era of shifting balance of power: it shows how this relationship is often seen in a partial perspective emphasizing only Islam and some of its most fundamentalist versions, while over the past decades, all traditional religions have reentered the political arena. Various theories of international relations have been formed about this phenomenon, such as that of the “clash of civilizations.” This book aims to show how the “holy war” is but one form of the interference of religions with politics. In the current crisis of politics as an autonomous sphere and of the state as a source of sovereignty, the author questions the possibility of a “holy alliance” between the main global religions, aimed at bringing a “universal morality” in the heart of the polis. See information on publisher's website (in Italian)

The author is currently looking at publishing a French translation of the book.