In Rome We Trust: Prof. Graziano's Latest Book To Be Published by Stanford University Press

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 ).