Sun Tzu And Machiavelli's Views On War

1064 Words5 Pages
MID-TERM POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSIGNMENT
QUESTION-
What are the key similarities and differences between the views of Non Western political thinkers like Sun Tzu/Kautilya with Western political thinkers like Hobbes and Machiavelli, with regard to war/security of a state

MACHIAVELLI AND KAUTILYA 's SIMILARITIES AND DIFFRENCES ON WAR
In my essay i will present the views of MACHIAVELLI and KAUTILYA on WAR and identify their similaties and diffrences.
KAUTILYA
Kautilya also known as Chanakya was an Indian philosopher. he was the chief advisor of king Chandragupta Maurya. and his famous book was Arthrashtrya in which he has written his views on war.
According to him, the king must be always ready to wage a war as it is the responsibility of the king to protect and for this, he should always be ready for war. King should not give any opportunity to his enemy to attack him, he should always attack first. King must attack when he is in better financial condition than his enemy. And strong enemy should be attacked when he is suffering from internal threats and problems. According to him, one should do war when less likelihood of monsoon.King should use spies this will definitely help him to win the war.
Kautilya thinks that mind should work more than hands everything during war depend upon mind game if the king is good in making strategies like what is the best time,place etc to attack he can win every fight. ' 'Three main types of weapons are prescribed and seem actually to have