Great Again? Manlio Graziano Publishes Book on the Geopolitics of the US from the Founding Fathers to Donald Trump

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.