Book Review- The PrinceNishit Jogi
As a diplomat in turbulent 15th century Italy, Machiavelli knew the semantics of politics. Through this book, he brings out the essence of how power really works. Considered as father of realism, this book of his is an intellectual portrait of his ideas. Chapter 1 “All states and governments that ever ruled over men have been either republics or monarchies.” In this chapter, Machiavelli, talks about hereditary monarchies and new monarchies, either entirely new or captured through conquest. Chapter 2 “A ruler who inherits power has less reason or need to upset his subjects, than a new one and as a result, is better loved” In this chapter, Machiavelli, talks about the how to govern a hereditary monarchy. As long as the new hereditary ruler maintains the balance and status quo set by the previous ruler, dynamically changes the policy relative to any new problem, there won’t be a lot of problem. Such rules last long. Chapter 3 “Time hurries everything on and can just as easily make things worse as better.” In this chapter, Machiavelli, talks at length about new territories added to the existing monarchy, i.e. mixed monarchies. There are two types of mixed monarchies, one, where the territory is geographically adjacent and the culture and language is similar. It is relatively easy to hold on to such territories because of the similarities and the only thing the new monarch has to do is to eliminate the ruling family and leave all the laws as they were previously. This will ensure assimilation easily without the subjects rebelling. Second, is when the conquered territory is geographically distant, in which case it is particularly hard to manage assimilation. However, prescribed in this chapter are ways to ensure grip over the conquered territories. Most effective solution is for the new ruler to move to that territory, ensuring is direct involvement in whatever happens. Another good solution is to establish colonies in some places to provide a link to the empire. This also ensures loyalty and inspires fear in the new subjects. The new ruler should then build up a friendly relation with the weak neighboring states of the conquered territory and undermine the stronger states as much as possible. The second thing to be taken care of is the prevention of another foreign power’s involvement in the same area. This should be done to prevent conflict of interest. This is explained, with pointed accuracy, through the example of French king Louis and conquest of Lombardy. Chapter 4 “Eliminate them (ruler and his family) and no one else can threaten you since no one commands the loyalty of the people.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about the exceptions to his previously stated theory. By taking the case of the Persian empire after conquest of Alexander, he brings out the difference between the two forms of monarchy; i.e. one, governed by the ruler and his servants and two, governed by the ruler and his barons. It is relatively easy to conquer countries like France where the foreign invasion is supported by a local baron, but its also extremely hard to hold because of sustained rebellion from the other dissatisfied barons. Countries like Turkey fall under the first type wherein there is a unified front against the invasion which makes it harder to conquer, but at the same time, very easy to hold on to because of zero absence of opposition. The conqueror has to just eliminate the ruling family and there won’t be any challenges to the throne. This, precisely, is the reason for why the Persians did nit rebel after Alexander’s death. Chapter 5 “Their memory of old freedoms lingers on and won’t let them rest.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about governing the states which have self-governance. The only two ways to preserve such states is to either completely destroy and rout them, or the conqueror should himself go stay at the territory. The latter doesn’t work for a longer time and ultimately the people want their freedom back. The most effective way for sustaining conquered Republics u=is to completely rout them. Chapter 6 “Because on top of everything else, we must remember that the general public’s mood will swing”. In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about how, through personal power and abilities, a ruler can obtain a State. The main argument here is that it is very hard to gain control and set up the territories, but fairly easy to hold on to them. The hardship comes when setting up a new law and administration system where the ruler has to take care of both, the previous and the new, benefactors and ensure that there is no resentment amongst any of the two. The other thing to be kept in mind is the ability of the ruler to impose the new system. If the ruler is weak, he cannot impose. So, here, stress is put on army backing. The last thing that the ruler has to do, through his own abilities, is to keep people convinced about his new system and eliminate any resentments to ensure that the public doesn’t rebel and starts respecting him. Chapter 7 “He has no trouble climbing on to his pedestal, since he is lifted there, but as soon as he is up, there will be any number of problems.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about rulers who have gained their territory by the means of money or in the form of favor. It is relatively easy to gain such territories, but really hard to maintain them. The reason for this is that rulers like such only depend on weak pillars of support and combined with this is their inability to rule due to zero previous experience. They won’t have possession of a strong and loyal army and, coming from a civilian background, they won’t be educated in matters of politics. Here, through the example of Cesare Borgia (Duke Valentino), Machiavelli clearly explains the troubles that come in rules like these. Chapter 8 “I think it’s a question of whether cruelty is well or badly used.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about states attained by committing a violent crime. The process is explained in the chapter through the examples of Agathocles and Oliverotto de Fermo. Whenever a common citizen eliminates the ruling class with a cruel use of violence, he gains undefeated access over the territory but this does not mean that the ruler has extraordinary abilities to control it. It just means that the ruler used violence effectively. The other thing that Machiavelli points out in this chapter is that to ensure loyalty and respect of the people the necessary cruelty that has to be done, should be done in the beginning to ensure that cruelty is necessary afterwards. Favors, on the other hand, should be given slowly to fully savor them. Chapter 9 “So, if he is sensible, the ruler must work out a situation where his citizens will always need both his government and him, however well or badly things are going.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about gaining rule by public support. There are two such kinds of rule, one, where the ruler is supported by the nobles because they want to oppress the people and two, where the people make one among them a king to stand against the oppression of the nobles. The rule supported by the nobles is very likely to fall soon because, the dealings with the ruler would be more on an equal level where the nobles would consider themselves akin to the king. Similarly, rules supported by the people would last longer because the ruler is alone and is supported closely by the people. In such cases, it always helps to keep the people who gave the power, close and happy. The problem arises when such a king moves towards absolute rule where the dealings with people are done through magistrates and people start losing touch with the ruler. Chapter 10 “Its human nature to tie yourself to a leader as much for the services you’ve done him as the good, he’s done to you.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about how a state can withstand siege. There are some rulers which cannot go on the offensive due to lack of a steady army. For them, it is best that they fortify their fortress and have faith on their people that they would not turn against the ruler. Having said this, he also points out a very simple thing that as long as the people are kept relatively safe and properly fed, they will have no reason to go against the ruler. Chapter 11 “Only church leaders possess states without defending them and subjects without governing them.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about the last form of state, i.e. church states. According to him, Church states are states bound and regulated by faith and therefore, it is nigh impossible to break them. At the same time, church rulers don’t directly fight in wars, but they have their territory protected. This all is attributed to Pope Alexander VI after he used money and violence to build an empire for himself and ended up benefiting the Church. Chapter 12 “A republic with a citizen army is less likely to fall victim toa coup than a republic paying for Mercenary armies.” In this chapter, Machiavelli stresses the importance of having a steady army to back any aspiring ruler. Then, he proceeds to completely rule out mercenaries as a force to be used in the army. According to him, mercenaries were the most useless bunch and would never be reliable. Through the examples of Venetia and Florence, he brings out the reason for the rise of mercenaries, that being their numbers and the other was the absence of steady army in the provinces. The other thing that helped out Florence was that both the sides of mercenaries had ambitions elsewhere preventing the need to conquer their employee. In the end, Machiavelli points out that when an army from outside will attack, like in the case of Charles, the mercenaries will just disappear and there will be no one left to defend Italian territories. Having said this, he goes on to attribute the degrading situation of Italy to the mercenaries and their incompetence. Chapter 13 “So, anyone looking for a no-win situation should turn to auxiliaries, because they are far more dangerous even than mercenaries.” In this chapter, Machiavelli, through many examples, advises the ruler to completely avoid the use of an auxiliary army during conquest. Auxiliary armies are even more dangerous to the ruler than the mercenaries because, one, unlike the mercenaries, they are loyal to another person altogether and obey his command. Two, auxiliaries don’t take leisurely time off like the mercenaries. Through the example of Cesare Borgia, Machiavelli explains how an ambitious ruler needs to have his own army to do his bidding rather than depend on other forces. Inviting Auxiliary forces is like suicide because after victory, the ruler will be at their mercy. Chapter 14 “For one of the many consequences of not having an army is that people will find you pathetic and this is a stigma a ruler must guard against.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about what a ruler’s relationship with his army is. The first thing is that the ruler should always be thinking about war, without that, he would end up being a mere statesman and lose touch over his soldiers. There are two kinds of preparation that should be done to ensure military readiness, one, physical preparation which involves regular army exercise and in addition to that, a lot of hunting, which will provide the ruler with a sturdy structure and help him understand the types of terrain firsthand. The second is mental preparation which involves reading and studying historical works to understand the semantics of war. Chapter 15 “If you think about it, there’ll always be something that looks morally right but would actually lead to disaster, and something else that looks wrong but will bring security and success.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about what positive and negative characteristics of any ruler are. He realistically points out that a ruler cannot have all positive and no negative characteristics. Therefore, a ruler should be pragmatic and understand the situation and act accordingly, no matter the moral cost. Chapter 16 “A ruler in power and a man seeking power are two different things.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about why a ruler shouldn’t be overtly generous to his subjects or to his nobles. When a ruler is overtly generous, there are two things that might have happened, one, that he is spending the public’s money, in which case, he will quickly lose their support. Two, he is trying to gain something, in which case, he has exposed his vulnerability. Any ruler should keep in mind to slowly spend one’s and the subject’s money, but never think twice while spending someone else’s money. Chapter 17 “Fear means fear of punishment, and that’s something people will never forget.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about how a ruler should decide to be cruel or to be compassionate. He points out that if a ruler needs to be loved, he cannot be cruel to his subjects. On the same lines, a ruler can never be compassionate during conquest. Case in point here is Hannibal of Carthage who led his armies ruthlessly and inspired people around him. Ultimately, it is upon the people to love or hate the ruler, but the ruler shouldn’t be afraid to be cruel when necessary. Chapter 18 “Pope Alexander VI never did anything but con people.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about how a ruler should manipulate human nature to his benefit. He points out that to gain support of people, any ruler would have to make promises, promises that he cannot keep due to multiple reasons. Here, it is important that the ruler is fully religious, fully loyal and fully passionate which making such promises. Through the example of Alexander VI, Machiavelli effectively points out the flaws in human nature. Chapter 19 “Experience shows that for every successful conspiracy, there are any number of failures.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about internal threats that any ruler faces. This internal threat may be in the form of subjects rebelling against him or his own people conspiring against him. This might happen when the ruler does things that lead to a rise in contempt among the people. Through examples of roman emperors, Machiavelli points out that pointless violence, seizure of property etc. are some to the things which lead to a rise in contempt. Chapter 20 “The ruler who is more afraid of his people rather than of foreign enemies, must build fortresses; but the ruler afraid of foreign armies should do without them” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about how a ruler should behave with the citizens around his residence. There are, two kinds of rulers according to him. One, frightened of the people he has just conquered and two, frightened of any external threat. When any ruler begins to arm his people, he inspires a feeling of trust in them and indirectly makes them work for him. On the other hand, if he builds up fortresses to protect himself, the people would be prone to not trust him and would easily go against him during any siege or battle. Building fortresses also means that the ruler is afraid of the people and this might result into resentment and rebellion. Chapter 21 “And when your ally wins, which with your help is inevitable, he’ll be at your mercy.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about how any ruler should win respect. Conquests and battles are a sure way to win respect among people. In addition to this, being pragmatic and exceptional in administrative matters also wins respect among people. A ruler should unanimously align with one side, must always respect others actual achievements and must assure people of normalcy. All of these would result in him winning respect among his subjects. Chapter 22 “A ruler’s choice of ministers is an important matter.” In this chapter, Machiavelli points out the necessity of having a proper set of ministers to guide the ruler. There are three kind of ministers, one which observe and learn without help, two which learn by watching someone else, and three which do nothing. Any ruler should have more ministers falling in the first category. Chapter 23 “So, a ruler must always take advice, but only when he wants it, not when other want to give it to him.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about how to avoid unwanted advice and falterers. The ruler must make it clear that he is not to be given advice without him asking for it. At the same time, he should keep asking to gain more insight from his minister. A ruler should ultimately follow his own bidding and not just the advice. Chapter 24 “The only good, sure, lasting forms of defense are those based on yourself and your own strength.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about how Italian rulers lost their states due to their own lack of abilities and not foreign invasion. He points out that weak army and zero public support combined with zero preparation and getting used to peace, ultimately led to their downfall. Chapter 25 “Fortune varies, but men go on regardless.” In this chapter, Machiavelli talks about the luck factor involved in any ruler’s life. Here, he points out that the rulers who solely depend on luck are more prone to failure when luck runs out while more dynamic rulers who change with time, are the ones that actually last for a longer time. Chapter 26 “There was one man who showed glimpses of greatness, the kind of thing that made you think he was sent by God for the country’s redemption, but then at the height of his achievements, his luck turned.” In this chapter, Machiavelli becomes emotional about the fate of Italy and goes on to point out to Lorenzo that his family would be the right one to restore the glory of Italy. Nishit Jogi is a final year MA student in the Dept of International Studies, Political Science and History, CHRIST(Deemed To Be University |
Journal Article Review-China’s Economic Statecraft: The Belt and Road in Southeast Asia and the Impact on Indo-Pacific by Xue Gong
Nishit Jogi
Title: China’s Economic Statecraft: The Belt and Road in Southeast Asia and the Impact on Indo-Pacific.
Author: Xue Gong
Journal: Security Challenges, vol. 16, No. 3, Special Issue: The Indo-Pacific: From Concept to Contest (2020), pp. 39-46
The paper aims to analyze the competition between China and the Quad (US-Japan-India-Australia) in the Southeast Asian region and how it has affected both regional and global players. The author defines the competition in terms of Southeast Asia’s acceptance rate of Quad’s FOIP (Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy) and China’s BRI (Belt and Road Initiative). The paper covers the economic policies of China concerning BRI in Southeast Asia and US policies to counter China’s outreach in the region. It covers the role played by other significant actors like India and Japan. This paper also provides current and probable policy outcomes of regional countries.
Methodology
- Research Questions:
● How do the dynamics between BRI and FOIP impact the region?
- Methods of study:
● Thucydides Trap narrative to explain the relationship between FOIP and BRI.
- Hypothesis and Assumptions:
Analysis of the Study
The paper is divided into three sections. The first discusses why China prioritizes Southeast Asia amid strategic competition with the United States. It is then followed by a discussion on China's implementation of BRI and the response from the region. The final section provides an analysis of Chinese perceptions of FOIP, primarily collected from Chinese scholars before the paper concludes with prospects and implications for South-East Asia. In the first section, the author discusses extensively on the importance of South-East Asia for China. The underlying argument is that since most Chinese energy supplies reach China through the region and China has an extensive maritime interest in the region and in the South China Sea, which has become increasingly important. However, in terms of regional security, the US already has a considerable presence and partnership with the Southeast Asian States. To counter this, China has adopted new economic statecraft to woo the states in this region, and BRI is one such measure that has achieved a lot of success in Southeast Asia. This has led to a bifurcated regional order where the leadership in regional security is being countered by Chinese economic advancement. In the second section, the author talks about the reactions to Chinese Policy for the region from the Quad. Here, there is extensive writing about agreements and open economy initiatives under the leadership of various members of the Quad in the region, and how they have aimed at countering the rise of China. In the third section, the author talks about the responses of the Southeast Asian States and the changes in BRI that came as a result of FOIP. The paper argues that the FOIP in its infancy was never perceived as a threat by Chinese analysts because it could never do in practice the ideas that it posed. But recent events have changed that idea when the US came out in support of this initiative by Japan. This meant that China had to counter FOIP and make stakeholders believe more in BRI. The result was seen in the second conference for BRI where the focus was paid more on the economic side rather than the strategic side. The Chinese aimed to create more transparency in the structure and vouchsafed that BRI never engaged in ‘Predatory Economics’. The author argues that all of this came because of the US and the Quad’s increasing interest in the region and also somewhat due to local resistance to BRI projects in Myanmar and Malaysia. This section also talks about the reason behind an increase in the intensity of Chinese involvement in the region. It argues that after the US withdrew from many projects, its credibility was affected and that became a pivot point for China to invest. The paper concludes by stating the policy responses of the regional player in the Southeast Asian region. Accordingly, most states in the region have been neutral and are taking benefits from both sides.
Conclusion
In terms of analyzing the respective sides of FOIP and BRI, the paper covers everything. The interesting thing to note here is that it also talks about the diminishing role of the US in the region. This may be true in some aspects and not true in some others. The Quad under US leadership still has a considerable grip over the region. In addition to this, the author suggested a Thucydidean Trap situation occurring in the region. This, if taken in the sense of economic competition, can be true to the premises, but strategically, a substantial conflict can't happen in the region. Chinese policy for the region has changed for the past few years and it has started looking for alternatives to mitigate the ‘Malacca dilemma’ that it has been facing. US policy under the Trump administration has ignored the region because of its focus on revitalizing America. The other quite obvious fact is that most of the countries in the region have immensely efficient administrations and all of them are united by ASEAN. So, there is no way in the near future that these countries will let China or the US increase their hold. The idea of non-alignment possessed by these nations is motivated by both, the notion of freedom and the notion of increasing economic benefits. As long as that is there, they will play both hands and ensure that no conflict arises.
Nishit Jogi is a final year MA student in the Dept of International Studies,Political Science and History,CHRIST(Deemed To Be University