TY  - GEN
TI  - Kau?ilya's Artha??stra: A Classic Text of Statecraft and an Untapped Political Science Resource
Y1  - 2014/07//
EP  - 21
PB  - Department of Political Science, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University
T3  - Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative Politics, ISSN: 1617-5069
UR  - https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/17144/
AV  - public
A1  - Liebig, Michael
CY  - University Library of Heidelberg, http://hpsacp.uni-hd.de
KW  - Kau?ilya
KW  -  Artha??stra
KW  -  Indian political thought
KW  -  sapt??ga theory
KW  -  raison d'état
KW  -  political realism
ID  - heidok17144
N2  - The Kau?il?ya Artha??stra ? written at the turn of the 4th to the 3rd century BC ? is a classical work of political theory and International Relation theory. However, Kau?ilya has so far remained on the sidelines of the international political science discourse in spite of Max Weber's repeated references to the Artha??stra and Hans J. Morgenthau's own statement that his theory of political realism is (also) based on ancient Indian philosophy. The Artha??stra is a theoretical and normative work which features six pivotal idea clusters: 1) state power, 2) raison d'état, 3) correlation of forces between competing states based on 4) the sapt??ga theory of the seven ?state factors? (prakr?ti). The correlation of forces predetermines which of six alternative foreign policy options ? the 5) ???gu?ya theory ? will be selected. The background of Kau?ilya's 'realist' statecraft is 6) matsya-ny?ya theory ? a political anthropology which features anarchy, conflicts of interest and power struggle.
Kau?ilya's idea of political realism anticipates much of the modern notion which is associated not only with Machiavelli and Hobbes, but particularly with Hans J. Morgenthau and also with Max Weber, Helmuth Plessner and Friedrich Meinecke. The Kau?il?ya Artha??stra is an untapped conceptional resource for theory building with respect to political theory, theorized statecraft and IR theory. The Kau?il?ya Artha??stra is also key for understanding the politico-strategic culture of modern India.

ER  -