Books

The Politics of Immaculate Misconception: The Ideas of the Post-Secular Age

The Politics of Immaculate Misconception: The Ideas of the Post-Secular Age

Rouben Shougarian

London: Gomidas Institute, 2013, 
192 pp,
ISBN 978-1-909382-04-6, paperback,
UK£17 / US$22.00
To order please contact books@gomidas.org



This book explores the relationship between freedom and liberty in the post Cold War era, with focused discussions of US-Russian power relations, as well as the US involvement in the Middle East and the Caucasus.

Dr. Rouben Shougarian was the first Armenian Ambassador to the United States (1993-1999), Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia (1999-2005), and Armenian Ambassador to Italy, Spain and Portugal (2005-2008). He teaches at the Fletcher School of Diplomacy, Tufts University (2009- ). Dr. Shougarian is author of West of Eden, East of the Chessboard. Four Philosophical Looks upon the Unknown (London: Gomidas Institute, 2010).

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword        9

CHAPTER I       
The New Fate of Faith in the Unipolar World. Intellectual Transformation of Traditional Worships and Their Emigration into the Realm of Politics (17)
The Face of the Post-Secular Faithbook 20)
Adjusting to the World with a Removed Center of Gravity: Russia Takes a Nation-Wide Communion (48)
The Block-buster of Ghost-Busting, or Life after Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Commandments (62)
Tod ist unvermeidlich, aber meist unbedeutend or the World According to Donald H. Rumsfeld (81)
Most Wicked Form of Faith (95)

CHAPTER II
The Philosophy of American Mediation of the Armenian-Turkish Relations. Transitional Justice: An example of transformation of
unresolved bilateral issues into regional and global security problems in the age of unipolarity (99)
The Bankruptcy of the Old Curiosity Shop (101)
The Theology of Denial (103)
The Theology of Collective Memory. Individual Projections of "Collective Death” as Building Blocks of National Identity in Exile (106)
The Theology of Political Pragmatism (108)
The Theology of Parity and Transitional Justice. The Evolution of the US Interest in the Black Sea/South Caucasus Region. Failure of Initiative (113)

CHAPTER III       
Pressing the Re-set Button in the Middle East and Beyond. A Change of Policy or the Change of the Mind-Set? (139)
An Attempted Breakaway from the Prison of Post-Secularism: The Witch is dead, the Witch is dead! (142)
History as a Metaphor. The Second Body of Russia and the Other Side of Spiritual Security (160)
"Internationalization of Human Conscience” and the Emerging Norms of International Law. Legal Tools for the Renewed Political Mind-Set (170)

Bibliography (187)
« Back to books listing