. >> now joining us on booktv is the author of this book, "the global vatican," francis rooney is the author. ambassador, is the vatican a political organization? >> i think every civic organization to some degree or another is political. one of the great things about the holy see is they are not a political organization like a government, like a united states or a secular government. they don't need to take credit for what to do. some of the things in the book that make them uniquely important in the world is employing their software is they don't have to take credit. they can work in the shadows behind the scenes, makes them very effective. >> what are some of those issues the vatican works on behind the scenes at? >> when i was there in 2006 we worked quietly with all easy to unify the christians in lebanon. to make sure the old tripartite coalition was kept in place. and it worked. it got lebanon stabilize for a few more years. >> is it important for the u.s. to have an ambassador to the vatican? >> that's one of main points of the book is to hopefully make the argument it's very

ambassador francis rooney.ambassador renÉe, as the vatican a political organization quite >> i think every civic organization is to some degree or another political. one of the great about the holy see is they are not a political organization like a government, the united states. they don't take credit for what they do. some of the things i write in the book make it uniquely important in the world and they don't take credit. it makes them very affect it. >> host: what are some of the issues the vatican works on? >> guest: for example, when i was there in 2006, we worked mightily to unify the christians in lebanon, to make sure the apartheid coalition of druze, shiites and christians was kept in place. and it worked. it got elected and stabilized a few more years. >> host: is important for the u.s. to have an ambassador to the vatican? >> guest: that's one of the main points is about to make the arguments employed. the soft power, perhaps the only sovereign in the world as a soft power they have without having a

. >> "the global vatican" is the name of the book and the author is ambassador francis rooney. this is a booktv on c-span2. >> mehran kamrava talks about the outsized influence of qatar in the world. he argues unlike other regional powerhouses qatar has been able to achieve its global scanning through al-jazeera, its supportu democracy movement in the middln east, and through the hosting of major world events like the world cup.o this is about an hour and 15 minutes.wn wth >> thank you all very much. let me start by thanking the wonderful team for tonight's event. let me start by thanking osama and his team for tonight's event. i am most grateful and honored to be here. thank you all. i was motivated to study since 2007 at the georgetown campus in delhi. one of the first things that struck me about the country was it's amazing development and its relative success. so what motivated me to write this book is the simple question of whether or not qutar is for real. i don't know how many of you are familiar with qutar. but in many ways, this is a country that consistently punches a

. >> now joining us on booktv is the author of this book, "the global vatican," francis rooney is the author. ambassador, is the vatican a political organization? >> i think every civic organization to some degree or another is political. one of the great things about the holy see is they are not a political organization like a government, like a united states or a secular government. they don't need to take credit for what to do. some of the things in the book that make them uniquely important in the world is employing their software is they don't have to take credit. they can work in the shadows behind the scenes, makes them very effective. >> what are some of those issues the vatican works on behind the scenes at? >> when i was there in 2006 we worked quietly with all easy to unify the christians in lebanon. to make sure the old tripartite coalition was kept in place. and it worked. it got lebanon stabilize for a few more years. >> is it important for the u.s. to have an ambassador to the vatican? >> that's one of main points of the book is to hopefully make the argument it's very

ambassador francis rooney is the author, forward by ambassador john negroponte. barred rooney -- ambassador rooney, is the vatican a political organization? >> i think every civic organization is to some degree or another political. so one of the great things about the holy c is they're not a political organization like a government, like the united states or a secular government. they don't need to take credit for what they do. and some of the things i try to write in the book that make them uniquely important in the world in deploying their soft power is they don't have to take credit. so they can work in the shadows behind the scenes. it makes them very effective. >> what are some of those issues that the vatican works on, as you say, behind the scenes? >> well, for example, in 2006 we worked quietly to unify the christians in lebanon to make sure that the old tripartheid coalition of jews, shiite and christians was kept in place. and it worked. it stabilized lebanon for a few more years. >> is it important for the u.s. to have an ambassador to the vatican, to