Introduction to International Relations: Machiavelli's Prince - Otto von Bismarck

[Music] they'll be the human factor the leadership factor when it comes to controlling the state that's where Machiavelli's Prince comes in rather nice and there's a number of things that the selections that I've given you here provides for first of all Greece whoever he or she happens to be right from Prince can be you know a king the queen bazaar and we're friendly whatever it is just know just prints weapon first thing is that the leader needs to know some kind of military tactics needs to be well versed in military history he needs to know his country's capabilities the extent of his country's resources and also learn from history this is also something I want to defend us of a small bit of time here on this last one knowing history because realists get a bad rap by liberalists constructivists and others who say that realists just don't take history into account they just don't simply learn from the past right because things are just constantly in some vicious cycle of you know self-interest and self-help that's not entirely true a good leader in a realist system can be one of the most powerful one of the most prudent and also one of the most lights leaders of his or her time know the history simply means know when to throw a punch and know when to pulse know when to wage war also know when to try to avoid us don't get yourself in Tangut into situations that are more costly for you to get out of than to get in so here we get a number of comparisons that Machiavelli notes how a prince attacks and we talk about the relationship between generosity and parsable let's talk about that one first what do we mean what does the word parsimony mean understand parsimony tuned to be here if you haven't heard the word before you might be able to kind of reverse engineering by knowing that it is somewhat of an antonín to being generous okay sort of do do as little as you need to do or expend as little as you need to spend in order to accomplish your goal it doesn't necessarily mean being cheap being cheap means that you could still screw up the war you could still underfunded barman but what Machiavelli is talking about here is parsimony is much better than generosity why because when you are the leader and statement you are effectively in charge of the state's resources its money its manpower and its capabilities going the wars Boston I mean that's just a bottom line I don't care what Donald Rumsfeld said okay nine times out of ten when you wage war almost always what happens what do you need to do as a leader is domestically if you're going to go to war you have to raise taxes I mean that's just dog okay now how much you raise is a different story but it's almost it's you know it's almost if you know it's almost automatic that taxes are raised but when you raise taxes you risk the ire of your own people because no one likes paying taxes better yet you could raise taxes as long as you have the people know this is all good for those of you that are planning on taking over the world at that point it's all good stuff here they gonna raise taxes you could still get the people behind you provided that you promised to show them where the money is going know how you you're driving on the highway and you see these signs you know your tax dollars at work or whatever it happens to be and you tend to think that that means that the potholes are being fixed I tend to think it is sort of a bluff and just we can just put up you put a sign up and to set your tax dollars at work there we would like to know that our tax dollars are going to something that benefits everybody right schools roads hospitals education something like that rather than lining the pockets of a few people so in that regard being parsimony means making sure that you spend your subjects money crudely and if you're going to go to war you better make certain that the resources are necessary to fight and win saved war this is probably one of the most normative aspects of realism but this comes along pretty much every single time and is something that is I think critically important to talk about Machiavelli talks about the difference between a leader that is loved versus feared which one does Machiavelli say it's better what's better to be loved or to be feared altogether now to be feared why why why why should we see why is it better to be feared then to be loved ah he doesn't necessarily say that but that's ultimately where we're going okay being feared means we would like to be respected and how does that be quit what do you think that what's what's what's cool about being respected what's cool about being respected here so you're saying that loyalty remains fixed okay what else comes out to being expected you won't be challenged okay if you're feared and respected the most part nobody's going to question your authority and why ah very good there might be one or two people in the room that want to supplant you but they know that everyone else is gonna back up that person fair enough so this case we talked about being fears feared and being respected how can one go about doing that domestically be feared and respected domestic this is all important for maintaining a good night in front on the international front punch those that show disloyalty I can go a little bit better than that but you're on the right track display those that have been punched well now you can run the risk of being hated we'll get to that in a moment well better yet how about this one how should one interpret the law that's one interpret law be objective the objective for everyone the law says this that everyone must be subjected to that law no PBA card no dropping names whose speed to get a ticket nobody likes it but that's just what it is and I'm sure that you know just going back to the speeding ticket analogy I'm sure that you all know of one town in the area where you live or at least one Street or one area of a town where you live that you just don't speed because you know that the cops are always going to be right we lovingly refer to a place close by here as Highland Park hey there the tories Island Park is notorious for pulling people over so the point is is that nobody's there does everybody like it of course not but are they going to break the law held up hey so we talked about being feared and feared and respected we are specifically talking about being able to objectively interpret and more importantly execute the law does that mean imprisonment sure does that mean fines sure does that mean public execution if you need to get the point across in the beginning you might want to do it all at once to kind of make a thing but you know weakly crucifixions in mosul probably are not going to work and there's what's the opposite of being fear what's worse than anything else being hated being hated how does one go about being hated first of all if you run the risk if you run the country out of resources pretty quickly sure especially if you use those resources to finance your own palaces and your own private security force okay shout out to Saddam Hussein as well as the members of the Kim family would North Korea excessive almost sadistic cruelty especially if the law is executed and subjectively certain people get walked other people get their heads cut off absolutely but then why is why isn't it okay to be loved what's wrong with being loves everyone wants to be loved being loved means that you in a way it's more of an emotional thing right we add to that very much so ouch well hey you know what's probably the best and quickest way to change someone loving you to someone hating you well you know ultimate that goes down to the money let's just say that in order to get a quick boost of popularity you're like all right for this year nobody's paying taxes ever is like oh that's kind of cool yeah then you realize the following year that the state has no money so now you have to go not only go back to to actually raise taxes so we go from nothing to both what the no and again as Joe Blow taxpayer it's like I'm sorry I don't sleep lodging in this so screw you okay so being loved is risky because oftentimes people being people are loved when you're generous or you can give money left and right that's awesome you know let's put it this way you'll have that one friend of yours you'll love them to death you wouldn't give them 20 bucks because you know that you'll never see that money again and that's why you love them because if you gave them money you'd stop loving them because they'd never take it back so big wow there's more than emotional thing being hated is as being a horrible rule being feared that's the nice middle ground and to add one extra you know adjectives to that being feared and being respected being feared being respected as what could be feared Vito Corleone was loved but he was also respected Michael Corleone was feared as well as respected Sonny was hated even though you could sympathize and Franco for freedom forward to get the hiscore leo good example of being fear and respect in this case this goes back to law and jurisprudence thank you people can be cruel but they need to be fair see if you're gonna be the guy that lays down the heavy hand to the law you better be prepared to do that for everybody even if it's your own brother that commits a crime if you're gonna swing that meat axe you better be objective to swing it for everybody justice says Machiavelli that's relative for each state just bad if one state is an enlightened democracy cool if another state is North Korea okay but justice needs to be universal and if you do need to get rid of your enemies if you just realize you know sometimes justice is good but damn it a good old purge is always healthy you know yes yeah I just gets rid of Deadwood now this ties up some loose ends and for God's sake do it in 48 hours and get it over with get hole done 48 hours if you need to again Michael gets rid of all the heads to the five families while his god child is being baptized I've been to Catholic baptisms they don't last long all right Kath the Catholic Church just gave me hang out 45 minutes done he's able to pump five people in 45 minutes and various parts of New York New Jersey good for you that's how to do this okay but if you're going to lay down the heavy hand of the law you sure as hell also better know the difference between what's legal and what's moral and folks they're not the same what's legal may not necessarily be moral and what you think is moral Kim Davis may not be what the Constitution says is legal and at the end of the day what trumps what's what is more important legality or morality legality and why why does legality Trump morality how do you think legality is not only objective very good but it is also what us constants sure and why is it constant because it is codified it's written down here's the Constitution there it is do you agree with it doesn't matter whether you would agree with it that's the law do you agree the speed limit on the highway because fine I sure as hell don't but do you know that if you're going at a certain speed on the road that it's more than the speed limit you run the risk of getting pulled over yes are you willing to take those consequences if the answer is yes have fun if not snow yeah very much so don't follow up Christian ethics that doesn't mean that he's anti-christian that doesn't mean that he's like embrace atheism yo no okay but what's wrong with a little Christian ethics what's wrong with a little love thy neighbor or type of thing I mean something wrong with that right yes no that's the whole thing you start practicing Christian morals you run the risk of not being feared but being loved loved is temporary which we've talked about before in oh there's one other thing you might turn the other cheek but what happens if what's a it's a distinct possibility if you turn the cheek some of the people on that cheek as well you know someone hits you on the rights she turned the left one oh look at that brand-new spots back you know it's like oh okay this is survival okay this is survival Christianity is sort of like if someone demands your shirt give them your coat you know what's gonna happen if someone if you give them your coat but they're like oh cool but wasn't asking for that to give your pants as well okay no not good so yes you're absolutely gets you're absolutely right that's one of the reasons why Christian morals can work great inside the country outside the country forget it and if you're going to be the leader you have to kind of be a little bit more think for Caesar less Christ okay so democracy can be at home that's what we'll find a cool power politics need to be executed abroad and what better person to exemplify the notion of the ideal prince like Otto von Bismarck Otto von Bismarck one of the most importance and probably one of the most powerful states in Europe on the mid to late 19th century one of the individuals largely it's not exclusively responsible for uniting the German Empire in 1871 anima bismarck exemplifies the type of Machiavellian leader that utilizes prudence warfare limited warfare but ruthless politics to get what he wants while minimizing the damage and avoiding large-scale conflicts and I'd like to use this marks 10-year - path towards German unity from roughly 1862 1871 as an example there are some they're very few people in history Europe or otherwise that's able to achieve what he does without causing Russia to invade the rest of Europe for a time period this park is also about one of those people that you do not want to play Monopoly with thank why is that for at least three reasons okay this here is a map of what used to be central Europe's jump drawer we've referred to that as the Holy Roman Empire the whole bunch of state city-states petty stakes duchies kingdoms whatever it happens to be into this mix are two large German states chief of which is Russia the one in the dark girl so I'm going to give you a little bit of a background so you're all in the same nature so by 1860 there was this loose confederation of German states called appropriately the German Confederation in that we have crush up Austria Bavaria Saxony good birth what else panel Bern and other places like before with facilities is two main house powers that are constantly jockeying for control in Russia in the north and the Austrian Empire in the south the borders here seem a little strange they've got red quarters and you've got black borders the black borders constitute what was the German Confederation which includes a part not the entire piece of the austro-hungarian Empire and most of Russia are Bismarck it is the Chancellor of Prussia at this time and he decides that the best way to achieve Prussian dominance is to eventually realize the formation of a German states he is not a nationalist by any stretch of the imagination up to his dying days this mark believed himself to be a Prussian Patriots so everything that he does is for his states Prussia not for some conceptual German Kingdom and the reason why I'm saying that will be revealed pretty soon what he does realize is that by uniting all of the German kingdoms under a Prussian monarchy he can effectively control most of Central Europe and be the head of an enlarged powerful States pretty much the European version of Sparta at the time now he's got a couple of things that are going against him chief of which is he's not only squabbling kingdoms and principalities within the Confederation and he also has limited manpower but he's got a couple of other things at this Sun one of which is his excellent diplomatic skills and this is where a realist prince comes in handy because miss mark pretty much cornered the market on how Germany can take over yours in less than 10 years it's been tried multiple times after that and it failed but there's a three staged recipe or how this can happen the first thing that that this mark does whenever he decides descent and harming somewhere in Europe is to contact Russia and tell them guys don't worry about it nothing's going to happen okay non-aggression pact with Russia is the first the first rule of this Marmot Club is you create a non-aggression pact with Russia thank that's the simple easy thing all right you contact the Czar hey Czar what I'm gonna be moving my army always not always okay bro you must take parts of Poland uh now now we probably saw Paul in a long time ago what would you tell Russia with the eastern side we're good okay number two once you get rushed out to be like guys we're all good to go back to sleep is that there's one other major power in Europe that could ruin the day for Bismarck they tend to be occupied elsewhere around the world but you really don't want them on the opposing side great brick now Great Britain gotta remember 1850s 1860s if Great Britain has one incontrovertible power what a military capability what's Great Britain's big military thing going for it's not a Navy why because Britain cares about one thing and one thing only they had it for at least another century British Empire is kind of cool but what's the money shot as far as British Empire's concerns what America is independent that's all fine a good his tours the Empire is concerned and it together all roads lead to India that's like the clearing house yo so what you got to think about this to think about their drink Britain here's a deal way over here there's two legs actually there's three ways you can get to India you can take the really laying roof who the hell wants to do that so what's the other really good way of getting de indias up on a boat okay there's two ways that you can get anything else from England you can take the scenic route where you can cut through the gas station what's the scenic route all the way around Africa that is one hell of a scenic routes which the reason why Great Britain held on to South Africa as long as it did most of the British Empire most of Britain's colonies were for one reason than one reason alone to secure safe routes and passages to India okay now the other way to do this is easia a real quick shortcut this is the ultimate cut through the gas station to bypass the red light is what the Suez Canal hey let's just forget all of Africa go through the Mediterranean pay huge amounts going down through the gold Hormuz and boom you're there in no time which means that Great Britain also needs to control what other pieces of territory Great Britain Scot South Africa Great Britain also needs what Egypt it needs the Nile it needs to brawl term it basically wrist marks looking at the map that is like okay I need to unite all of this does this screw with Britain it doesn't cool what is the surefire way of getting Britain to be like Oh jolly good do whatever we want what you don't need Britain Britain can do their own thing they're pretty cool but it's short written that you're not threatening their sea routes which means how are you gonna threaten their series don't build an ink simply miss Marquez leg maybe what the hell do we need an ad for okay we're a land down so rule number two don't build a navy rule number one non-aggression pact with Russia rule number two don't build a name if you've got number one and number two down you're pretty much 85% of the way there to take over the rest of Continentals guru because why is great because Great Britain doesn't care what you do on the continents as long as you don't screw with India and Russia doesn't care what you care of the continent as long as you're going to think then pretty similarly anything else rule number three if you've got a target in mind a man here looking kind of pretty hey you ended up ganging up on that one target by forming a set of intricate alliances with other powers diplomatic militarily isolate the targets once you've got the diplomatic allies behind you go on war with that target the war should be quick decisive and on your terms if you fight the war longer than a year you're wasting resources and once you have achieved your preset goals any more dictate peace terms on your conditions get what you want declare victory the war is over this is not wars for adventure this is not moreso glory these are defending czar offensively defensive Wars for the future of a consolidated Prussian dominated German states that clear so far all right so what does he do the first place that he's decides to pick launch is Denmark and Denmark if you can see up there on the map right there's two City standards to reads Leslie and bulls done at least cat population for ethnic Germans that we're living outside of the German Confederation in finding this mark was not a German national you can care two weeks about it but he did know how to play the nationalist car so he starts declaring he starts passing information to the Germans which was located in Frankfort hey man those days up there are you know beaten up on those poor Germans they're forcing them to speak Danish they're you know enforcing their own culture on the Germans are suffering Germans need to begin their own state all the others like getting your right that needs to happen what are you gonna do Bismarck I'll tell you exactly what I'm gonna do I'm gonna fight in the name of the German people and I'm gonna fight the name of German freedom right he knows how to play the beat recover okay so that sounds like a really good idea what did you do first thing he does is its contacts Russia hey guys don't worry go back to sleep - hey English I'm gonna go and do something up in the North Sea but it's gonna be don't worry you know what have fun it into you all right jolly good anyways in France in the islands with Austria or Denmark is kind of corners can't believe Lex because what alliances happen these guts the French and the Austrians don't even have to commit soldiers you know you know what if the Alliance can simply do I'm gonna outline with you just so you sit back and don't defend Denmark mile long you know what you do in this alliance nothing just sit the war out I don't do anything No oh those the war would Denmark it's quick decisive it's over yeah this mark takes fleshly and whole study and who is it into doing well it's even better than she searches uniting all the territory in the northern region and annex have been to Prussia all gives a very popular main at home okay number two this mark realizes that at some point if he's going to United the German state is gonna have to knock out his major life it's gonna happen at some point or another what was other major German power within the Confederation austro-hungarian Empire now this was a major dilemma for German nationalists do we include Austria or not those that said units we have to include Austria they're German spoon are quickly told by that did not look hang on a second guys if austro-hungarian empires even a bigger junk drawer than ours because they've got a whole bunch of other people that mark German they've got checks and they got poles and they have Serbs and Croats and Romanians and they have these really weird people called Hungarians well you want them in your empire and some people said well you know what you do we can get the Austrian Empire to condoms break up and they could just take that like yeah which empire has ever voluntarily you know broken up the disagree exactly so you know what especially with like all Germans one state you know what Austria you've got enough problems to deal with but says Bismarck I don't want you to screw things up for me so nothing personal but I'm going to have to go to war with you for one reason and one reason only to not get out of the German Confederation so what are you do step one what's step one don't rush them tell them don't got the guys it's all cool step two call Great Britain yeah I don't think the British Navy really cares about the Austrian Empire all right one two three what do we allied with Franks and a 1-up and his distance this was also kind of cool there's one other country talk about this country just yet but it's the mid-1860s a new kid on the block and this smart allies with them as well Italy Italy and why Italy because this mark kind of takes Italy aside those yoke we don't mean we know that you people can fight it's all cool but spec more Germans your Italians it's all good you know your wine is better than ours but I could use a little backdoor help I'm not asking you to send in the troops but maybe pick them below the bill just to distract them because and I'll tell me what if you defeat them you want this you want the Veneto region I can give you that in the peace deal you know it's almost a melodic Austria can't hold a candle to all of them reason to be now aside from aside from giving the Veneto region to Italy this spark does not take any other territory he does not even force Austria into Tripoli reparations all that he does for suppossed rien to admit the military defeat so this mark has the tactical event at the peace terms to dictate is one role and that is simply Austria your punishment losing this war that we kind of started is you're kicked out of the German Confederation you're at means that he eliminates one of his most important rivals now this is where it gets interesting does you might think to yourself you can stop right there people not cool yeah Austria's kicked out which leaves the southern German kingdoms all alone and vulnerable now if you know anything about religion in Germany it's usually 50/50 Protestant and Catholic what's the predominant version of Christianity in southern Germany Russian or Catholic it's Catholic now Austria is out of the picture which means that these small countries meet the Alliance is a support of one other major Catholic power what is the most natural country for them to look to for support you know that Germany is gonna go to war with these people at some point France because it just wouldn't be a story about Germany unless France was amazing so France is now seen as the potentially new rival so this farms alright we're gonna do this one more time and now I'm going to go to war with France simply to knock them out of the diplomatic game and use me the ability of incorporating to the southern German states alright so number one you know the drill Russia hey guys sitting at this point it's like hey Russian it's me same old same old cool not you know hey England's same old same old again yeah okay cool alright who else to see ally with he allies with you ready for this Austria allies Austria many things awaiting you just poked Austria a couple of years ago how how the hell did this happen because miss mark then tells the Austrians hey you know love sorry about that before you know what and this is probably one of the most fateful things that will hit Europe over the next 50 or so years hey Austria no hard feelings about kicking me out of the German Confederation you know we want to see you do well but you can't really dictate what's going on over here but might I interest you in a few things that are happening on your southern border the Balkans I'm just saying there's a small country that you could you could take over if you wanted to there thorn in your side if you don't handle them correctly they're kind of buying the bosnia right about to hell you might want to do something at all what country was he talking about Serbia by throwing Austria's Direction down into the Balkans and kind of punking serving up if that went over really well visited you know what luck but he gets all Austrian an alloy against France the franco-prussian war was again the third quick and decisive victory German army conquers and occupies Paris and at the Treaty of Versailles not the Treaty of Versailles the Palace of Versailles sorry in 1871 Bismarck is there to calculate the founding of the German Empire who becomes the first emperor of Germany the previous King of Prussia William the first who becomes the first Chancellor of Germany the previous Chancellor of Prussia this mark the old leaders do is naughty baby slim self is approachable and he realized that it was a compressor dominated state now why did I go through all of this information because this marks diplomacy as well as his war tactics for the most part linked up to what is an ideal realist diplomats the ability and the desire to use war as a natural tool where politics can no longer function but yet these wars are Short's decisive and overwhelmingly in his advantage this mark does not take over territory that is not needed there's a certain goal when that primary objective is complete the war is terminated at the end of the day Russia and Great Britain remained basically on the sidelines and a new country forms in the center of Europe which by 1900 becomes one of the most powerful one of the most developed and one of the most organized in all of Europe to say that this was done in 20 years was nothing short of a miracle is still in understands but that is how realism can work if done correctly this is actually a very nice mixture of Machiavellian tactics as well as power politics right Machiavelli says no wonderfully no one to throw a punch don't be afraid to throw a punch also know when to pull know what your allies are and if you're gonna go to war with Austria at one point and Ally would then again that means that you must have done something really good diplomacy because Austria could have been completely justified in telling this mark two pistols any so with that said I think I think I think we ended 410 correct you know what I think I'm gonna do I'm gonna give you guys an extra 10 minutes I'm gonna give you I'm gonna just end class really because I think it's a little not enough time to really talk about security so what we'll do is we will do security dilemma and the job fair cyber reading on Monday please make sure that you have that whole stuff also remember what are you also going to see next week after Monday recitation section so we meet all early on Monday of next week Oh

Channel: Michael Rossi Poli Sci

Views: 7,665

Keywords: political science, international relations, otto von bismarck, niccolo machiavelli, academia, rutgers university, realism, german history, education, poli sci, college, the prince, realpolitik

Id: D-xWD2BTnwc

Length: 40min 7sec (2407 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 16 2017