Niccolo+Machiavelli+and+You

Dear Niccolo Machiavelli, I understand that you have requested some advice to suggest to your client on how to navigate the Israeli Palestinian conflict. To begin with you will need to have four solutions to the power struggle between these two cultures and how the West Bank can be separated more equally between them. You might consider getting to know your country and cultures so that you can understand their needs and wants, making the country strong while the citizens agree with what is being done to better their lives, use the upper class citizens to get you ahead with the country, and live in the country so that you understand the two cultures and enemies are less likely to attack. These four solutions are some of what you have suggested before for Europe in your book, // The Prince // so you should be somewhat familiar with them. Give them a chance and see what will work out best for this conflict between cultures and property. When talking about defending a country you suggested in chapter fourteen of // The Prince, //“First, one gets to know one’s country and can understand better how to defend it”. If you understand this country then you will be able to relate to the two conflicting cultures more easily. You will be able to understand their needs and wants without having to think too hard. Once these are mastered, “Then, with knowledge and experience of the terrain, one can easily understand any other terrain” (chapter 14). With this newfound knowledge you can easily conquer enemy lands because it will be easy for you to feel comfortable with your surroundings. This knowledge of your own terrain helps you to be one step ahead of your enemy because you will know the most likely places they will be when they either come to attack you or when you come to attack them. Knowing your country helps you in war and protection. Without knowledge of your surroundings you will not be able to quickly move from place to place in order to conquer your enemy. As you talked about in // The Prince // getting to know your country can make all the difference in whether or not you win the war or they win the war. When looking to succeed within your country you need to build up the country’s power while keeping the citizens happy. As you stated in chapter ten of // The Prince //, “who has a strong city and does not make himself hated, cannot be attacked, and if there were someone who attacked him, he would depart with shame “. You want your country to agree with what you are trying to do to make them a better country. In order to do this successfully, you must start from the base. You need to strengthen the core of the country starting with the government. If you have a government that is communicating well to everyone, then the ideas that they have for the betterment of the country would be known more and mostly likely would happen. Then you would go out to the citizens and make sure they were happy with what the government was discussing. If you found many that were unhappy, then you would need to make other options that they would prefer while persuading them to agree with what is already an option. When this all fits together into one complete puzzle, then you are least likely to be attacked and will most likely stay successful as long as your people agree with you. Now if you are struggling to get a start in a country you should look to the citizens of the country that are in either higher castes or classes. You have two options, “by a prince with all the others as his servants who by his grace and permission help govern the realm as his ministers; or by a prince and barons who hold that rank not by virtue of the grace of their lord, but by virtue of the antiquity of their family”(chapter 4). With these two options you have two different reasons as to why these two groups of people could help you get started with your ideas to making the country more successful. First of all if you work with the slaves, they are already used to working underneath someone else. This gives you a much lower chance of having the slaves rebel against you when they disagree with you. This leads into the country becoming more united because when you work for someone else you tend to agree with what is happening and you support it even when you do not agree with it. Now when working with barons you must first win them over. This tends to be rather easy, “since there will always be malcontents and those who desire changes” (chapter 4). They can show you the way to get involved within the country so that you can change the power and give out ideas on how to make the power more successful. With these two options you can find your way into the country with little effort and quickly you can help the country to separate the problems occurring now so that they can be prevented in the future. If you want your country to stay stable with no conflicts and to move along smoothly then you should consider living in your country. In // The Prince //, you say, “But when states are acquired in a country differing in language, laws, and customs, this is where the difficulties arise, and it requires good fortune as well as great industriousness to hold onto them; and one of the best and most effective remedies would be for the person who has acquired them to take up his residence there” (chapter 3).When the leader of the country lives in the country enemies are less likely to attack because they understand that you are present and most likely know your country from the inside out. Also if you live in your country you can spot a problem a mile away. The amount of conflicts would go down because you would see and understand what your people wanted and if there were any problems you could handle them quickly without hesitation. Living in your country gives you the advantage of understanding your citizens’ problems and conflicts while you are staying informed on your country daily. In order to fix a conflict over culture and country you need to have more than just one solution to fix it. You need to understand your country’s needs and wants while also understanding its terrain to be able to figure out which areas would be better suited for one culture rather than the other. All in all fixing a conflict between culture and country should not be a one piece solution. Now it is your turn to make your pick on which solutions you feel would best suit this situation.