Abstract

The issue of statecraft is central to the works of Machiavelli, and his primary contribution to contemporary practice and theorizing is an exposition of the inevitable complexities behind this human endeavor. States rise and fall because of failures in leadership tied with the moving contours of the political arena itself. Key to Machiavelli’s analysis of statecraft is the internal relations between Virtù and Fortuna. I intend to show that Machiavelli’s contribution to the modern notion of state-building is not only an exposition of the innards of court politics, but also a development of the classical notion of virtù-Fortuna into a vital component that gave statecraft and, to an extent, politics in general its spirit of eternal motion. Machiavelli paved the way for a modern notion of statecraft by exposing the primary problem that gives it meaning through its inherent irresolvability—statecraft as determined by the convergence of virtù as a conscious effort with the basket of constantly moving objective factors we call Fortuna. Specifically, I argue that virtù and its dimensions seek to penetrate Fortuna and expose its concrete components, hence, making these factors recognizable, understandable, predictable, and eventually, vulnerable to acts of establishing and sustaining control.