The book reveals the nexus between religion and politics today and shows that we live in an
interdependent world where one global civilization is emerging and where the world's peoples
are continuing to coalesce around a series of values that contain potent Western overtones.
Both Putin's Orthodox Russia and regions under the control of such Islamist groups like ISIS
and Al Qaeda resent and attempt in a largely languishing effort to frustrate this series of
values. The book explains the current tension between the West and Russia and parts of the
Muslim world and sheds light on the causes of such crises as the Syrian Civil War Russia's
aggression against Ukraine and acts of terrorism such as 9 11 and the ISIS-inspired massacres
in Paris. It shows that religion continues to affect global order and that knowledge of its
effect on political identity and global governance should guide both government policy and
scholarly analysis of contemporary history.
