Substantive #3

There aren't knights in shining armor today

I agree with Machiavelli’s arguments in the context of 1550 Italy, not today. 

First, today’s military situation differs from the situation that Machiavelli was in which was one of, as Wootton described it, “foreign invasion followed by another” (xiv). In Machiavelli’s time, military advances and invasions were common but in the modern era, the concept of mutually assured destruction acts as a barrier to all out war and invasions. During the Cold War, the US and USSR could be paralleled as any of the hegemons of the 1500s like England, France, Spain, or the Holy Roman Empire. However, the US and USSR did not go to war with each other because of the concept of mutually assured destruction. A war between the US and the USSR with their late 1900s nuclear arsenals would have decimated the entirety of the other country, any neighboring states, and the environment, which would not have been the case of a war between any of the 1500s hegemons who could and did fight against each other for most of the early middle ages. The power of weapons today dwarfs the power of weapons in the past which means the military needs to be used in a more conservative way than Machiavelli suggests. 

Additionally, Machiavelli believes in usage of power. He states “If the King of France had the military capacity to attack Naples, he should have done so” (13). He believes that if one has the ability to do something, they should and that it is in their right to perform the action. That would have been in the case in 1500s Europe where there were no consequences of actions such as these except for a loss of troops in the acquisition of another country, but in addition to the loss of military life, today’s countries face soft power consequences through the use of economic sanctions and exclusion from international organizations. Status quo countries rely an unprecedented amount on global trade and cooperation, and exclusion from those can be detrimental. After the Russian annexation of Crimea, an action that Machiavelli would support since Russia had a bigger military than Ukraine, the resulting economic sanctions on Russia contributed to an economic crisis from 2014-2017. In today’s interconnected world, countries and leaders need to think about how their actions line up with international norms—a concern Machiavelli did not have to worry about. 

Finally, Mahiavelli states a good leader should have both animal and human qualities in order to be effective. In short, “[Never] is a ruler ever short of legitimate reasons to justify breaking his word” which implies that leaders can have ambiguity in their decision making process (54). However, leaders in 1500s Europe lacked the extent of accountability to the people and international order that exists today. The most powerful countries today tend to have multiparty systems, numerous representatives, and a president/prime minister that is limited by checks and balances. Therefore, the leader of the country is not able to act like an “animal” and engage in uncivilized processes like excessive violence or maltreatment of the people when they have to run to be reelected again into office. The election process of today’s most powerful countries would hopefully weed out ingenuine people that Machiavelli would support as good leaders. 

₁ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-12-16/no-caviar-is-not-getting-cheaper-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-russian-ruble-collapse