Customer Reviews

Religion, The Missing Dimension of Statecraft

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Amazon sometimes eats reviews when editions change. I bought and read this at the same time that I bought and read the same author's book on "Faith-Based Diplomacy," and I just want to say, after reading the books and also hearing him speak, he is on to something very very important. I believe that we need an Undersecretary of State for Cultural and Religious Affairs just as we need an Undesecretary of State for Democracy and an Undersecretary of Defense for Peacekeeping. America is completely out of touch with the world, and genuine faith, not the American Fascist faith of the fundamentalist right, is a compelling moral advantage that we have lost sight of.

Here are some other books I recommend:

Faith-Based Diplomacy: Trumping Realpolitik

God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (Plus)

The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right

The Republican War on Science

Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America

Many examples of Christians working, such as in Eastern Germany just after the wall came down. Very surprising. These are instances not reported by the press of actions for which the Christians sought to avoid media attention.

Question: How might religion and spirituality play a positive role in the work of diplomacy?

When a friend in Washington, D.C. recommended I read Religion, The Missing Dimension of Statecraft, I hesitated. I shouldn't have waited. This book is a series of theoretical chapters and case studies, which illuminate the effect of a sacred-secular dichotomy in public life and religious life in the United States. It shows how American diplomats have been unwilling or unable to understand the influence of religion in peace-making the past several decades.

Douglas Johnston shows how the role of religion in peacemaking is mostly unnoticed because religious mediators typically avoid attention from the media.

Conflict resolution is chronicled in post WWII France and Germany, Nicaragua in the mid-1980s, Nigeria in the Biafran civil war, East Germany's peaceful transition from communism, South Africa's journey to the end of apartheid, and more. These case study chapters show how, in each of these conflicts, there were faithful Christian leaders serving as peacemakers. These mediators paid close attention to the role of religion in the peace negotiations.

Finally, after surveying the track record of the US foreign policy establishment's attention to spirituality, a few chapters explore the implications of the case studies. For today's Christian leader, this book is a useful resource to seriously examine the challenges faced in envisioning how we might partner with political leaders to realize the fuller potential of peacemaking.

However, this kind of diplomacy must not become publicized. It's best left to the quiet negotiators, the true peace-makers.