Kryachkov 2!indd

94
Д. А. Крячков
UNIT III
4. “Do you think it is appropriate for political candidates to talk about their religious beliefs as 
part of their political campaigns, or do you think this is not appropriate?”
Appropriate
Not appropriate
Unsure
ALL reg. voters
50%
48%
2%
5. “Would you like to see organized religion have more influence in this nation, less influence, or 
keep its influence as it is now?”
More
Less
As it is now
Other (vol.)
Unsure
27%
32%
39%
— 
2%
Ex. 33. Read the following sample book review (abridged) and analyze it using the 
guidelines that follow.
ERIC O. HANSON Religion and Politics in the International System Today 
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 345 pp.
1.
With the terrorist attacks of September 11, scholars and practitioners of international 
affairs converged suddenly on a pragmatic consensus: Religion matters. Academic and 
policy institutions of the international relations establishment have a history of neglecting 
to fully integrate religion into their agendas, but the rise of religiously motivated terrorism 
and fear of an impending “clash of civilizations” has resulted in a scramble to catch up.
2.
While such efforts are welcome, many of the approaches have been from a largely secu-
lar academic vantage point full of ideas about the inevitability of secularization. Further-
more, there has been a tendency to treat religion only as part of the problem, not as part 
of the solution. 
3.
Eric O. Hanson’s book, Religion and Politics in the International System Today, is an excep-
tion in several respects. Hanson has published extensively on religion and international 
affairs, particularly with respect to the global role of the Catholic Church. This latest and far 
more wide-ranging work is therefore not the product of a Johnny-come-lately discovery 
of religion as a subfield of social science. Armed with impressive breadth of awareness of 
religion-and-politics research, Hanson moves from region to region, exploring the diverse 
forms of Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhism formulations of religious politics. 
What the author shows, in a thorough and thoughtful way, is that the possibilities of reli-
gious politics are richer and more enduring than the momentary flashes of the extremists' 
bombs would lead us to believe. 
4.
The book is divided into two sections. The first (chapters 1 through 4) presents a “new 
paradigm” for understanding contemporary global politics, and offers definitions of reli-
gion and discussions of both religious perspectives on politics and political perspectives 
on religion. The second (chapters 5 through 10) presents 5 regional surveys-the West, East 
Asia, South Asia, the Middle East/North Africa, Latin America-and a summary chapter.
5.
Hanson begins by pointing out that we lack a theory to complement analyses limited 
to a single religion or region, which would enable us to understand the post-Cold War rela-
tionship of religion and politics worldwide. And though he wonders whether one is possi-
ble, he does propose a “post-Cold War paradigm,” which takes seriously both the significant 
role of religion and the reality of the four rapidly integrating global systems — economic, 
military, and communications systems and of course politics.

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