This work investigates how the Soviet Union utilized religious institutions and organizations as instruments of foreign policy during the early Cold War era. William C. Fletcher, a scholar specializing in the intersection of Soviet statecraft and religious affairs, examines the state's strategic manipulation of the Russian Orthodox Church and other religious bodies to influence international opinion and diplomatic relations. The text provides a framework for understanding the tension between the state's official atheistic ideology and its pragmatic use of religious diplomacy to project influence abroad.

Scholars of Soviet history recognize this text as a specialized study of the instrumentalization of religious institutions during the Cold War. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the author's reliance on specific diplomatic records to support his arguments.