Sinews of Power: Ethics in Niccolo Machiavelli's Realist Thoughts on Foreign Politics

For IR theorists including E. H. Carr, Martin Wight, Kenneth Waltz, William C. Wohlforth, Barry Buzan, Jonathan Kirshner, and so forth, Machiavelli is an early realist who divorced foreign policy considerations from moral concerns. However, political theorists, such as Isaiah Berlin, Janet Coleman, John McCormick, and Erica Benner view Machiavelli as an ethical thinker. These two disciplines’ divergent conceptions of Machiavelli are not in conflict. Because realpolitik and moral concerns co-exist in The Prince, Discourse on Livy and Florentine Histories. Therefore, this research aims to explore how Machiavelli reconciles political realism and ethical concerns in his theory on inter-state politics. It firstly interprets Machiavelli’s beliefs in human nature and political power. Based on these beliefs, it explores his core ethical tenets and realist thoughts on foreign relations. Finally, it examines what role his ethical tenets play in his thoughts on foreign relations.

This research finds that Machiavelli is a highly ethical thinker who reconciles ethics with realism in his international relations theory of human nature realism. Acknowledging the desire for freedom innate in human nature and understanding men’s consent to rules based on free will as a part of political power, Machiavelli views two ethical standards – respect for free agency and the rule of law – as constitutive of the state power that is indispensable for balance-of-power politics in his conception of inter-state relations. This research innovates both the space and style of IR. It expands the boundary of IR theory by investigating foreign politics in Machiavelli’s works, a pre-Westphalian space different from our time yet generates timeless insights on inter-state relations. It also demonstrates an interdisciplinary approach to IR that engages with political theory, which allows IR theory to understand its intellectual roots and to gain inspiration from past thinkers.