Philosophy is very important in understanding why certain people (leaders) do things

There are Christian Philosophers, Democratic philosophers, Libertarian philosophers and Chinese philosophers like Confucius and Lao Tzu. There are War philosophers like:

Sun Tzu:

The Art of War - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Spring and Autumn period in 5th century BC. The work, which is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu is composed of 13 chapters. Each one is devoted to a distinct aspect of warfare and how that applies to military strategy and tactics.

‎The Art of War (Machiavelli) · ‎The Art of War (disambiguation) · ‎Philosophy of war

 

There are Buddhist philosophers. In fact Christians often Say Buddhism is a philosophy like Confucianism rather than a religion which is also fine with most Buddhists too because that allows people in America  and Europe to be both Buddhists and Christians at the same time.

 

For example, I consider myself to be a Mystical Christian from Birth but in addition to this I also consider myself to be a Remay Tibetan Buddhist. (Remay only means I have taken initiations with most schools of Tibetan Buddhism through Tibetan Lamas like Nyingma, Kagyu, Gelukpa etc. mostly in the U.S. and India even though I have also spent 2 months in Nepal and 2 months in India in 1985 and 1986.

So, is Tibetan Buddhism a philosopy to me? Yes and NO

Is Mystical Christianity both a philosophy and a religion to me? LIkely Yes.

What is the difference between a religion and a philosophy?

I'm not sure there is one which is why I consider Democracy and Communism and Fascism religions too.

So, you cannot be political or religious without having some kind of philosophy. In fact, you likely cannot have ANY point of view at all without some kind of philosophy in how you live your life and in regard what you think is important in life and as to why you even stay alive.