Guicciardini, Geopolitics and Geohistory

Guicciardini, Geopolitics and Geohistory

Author: William Mallinson

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-07-23

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 3030765377

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This book demonstrates that geohistory is a more effective concept than geopolitics in understanding inter-state relations, at a time of considerable confusion in world affairs, and that Francesco Guicciardini’s thoughts are an efficient medium to demonstrate not only the inadequacies of geopolitics, but that a geohistorical approach can be a more responsible way of understanding international affairs. The book introduces a fresh approach, based on the individual, on which corporate characteristics and behaviour depend, often in the shape of state interests, which are unable on their own to predict actions driven by human behaviour. The book shows how show mainstream international relations theories are stuck in paradigms, inadequate in explaining why world politics is moving in a direction that nobody could predict even a decade ago. It shows how ideology can blur clear understanding. In short, it represents a new and intellectually refreshing approach and method in understanding, and tackling, the vagaries of relations between states.


Guicciardini: Dialogue on the Government of Florence

Guicciardini: Dialogue on the Government of Florence

Author: Francesco Guicciardini

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1994-06-09

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780521456234

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This is the first translation into English of Guicciardini's Dialogue on the Government of Florence. Written in the early 1520s by the author of the famous History of Italy, as well as a History of Florence and Political Maxims and Reflections, this dialogue presents what is arguably the most searching and comprehensive analysis of the politics of his times. Like Machiavelli, his contemporary and friend, Guicciardini rejects classical republican arguments in the name of the new political realism and acknowledges the important role of patronage and graft in contemporary politics and the illegitimacy of nearly all forms of political power. In this Dialogue he provides one of the clearest expositions of the term 'reason of state', which he was one of the first to employ and which he uses to justify the priority of state interest over private morality and religion.


The Threat of Geopolitics to International Relations

The Threat of Geopolitics to International Relations

Author: William Mallinson

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2016-09-23

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 1443816604

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Geopolitics, both in name, and in its application via geostrategy, is a controversial area of international relations. Although the practice of obtaining resources is as old as Mankind, the word came into its own with the imperial policies of the great powers in the nineteenth century, was used to justify world wars, went into decline, but was ‘taken to America’ and then re-exported to Europe after the last war by the likes of Henry Kissinger. Nowadays, the term is used unconsciously by politicians obsessed with power, often to justify war. This book tears apart the simplistic thinking of geopolitics, and proposes its replacement with the authors’ own method of ‘geohistory’, a method based on recognising that at the base of any analysis and evaluation of the international situation lie human characteristics.


Counsels and Reflections of Francesco Guicciardini

Counsels and Reflections of Francesco Guicciardini

Author: Francesco Guicciardini

Publisher: Legare Street Press

Published: 2023-07-18

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781021720498

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This selection of quotes and aphorisms from Italian historian Francesco Guicciardini provides valuable insights into his political and philosophical views. Translated into English by Ninian Hill Thomson and first published in 1895, these Counsels and Reflections are a must-read for anyone interested in Italian history and culture. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.


A Comparative History of Literatures in the Iberian Peninsula

A Comparative History of Literatures in the Iberian Peninsula

Author: Fernando Cabo Aseguinolaza

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2010-05-26

Total Pages: 766

ISBN-13: 9027288399

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A Comparative History of Literatures in the Iberian Peninsula is the second comparative history of a new subseries with a regional focus, published by the Coordinating Committee of the International Comparative Literature Association. As its predecessor for East-Central Europe, this two-volume history distances itself from traditional histories built around periods and movements, and explores, from a comparative viewpoint, a space considered to be a powerful symbol of inter-literary relations. Both the geographical pertinence and its symbolic condition are obviously discussed, when not even contested. Written by an international team of researchers who are specialists in the field, this history is the first attempt at applying a comparative approach to the plurilingual and multicultural literatures in the Iberian Peninsula. The aim of comprehensiveness is abandoned in favor of a diverse and extensive array of key issues for a comparative agenda. A Comparative History of Literatures in the Iberian Peninsula undermines the primacy claimed for national and linguistic boundaries, and provides a geo-cultural account of literary inter-systems which cannot otherwise be explained.


Kissinger and the Invasion of Cyprus

Kissinger and the Invasion of Cyprus

Author: William Mallinson

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2016-08-17

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1443898481

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Can Henry Kissinger be described as a serious statesman who altered the course of relations between states? Or was he a shallow impersonator of those whom he admired, and a geopolitical engineer who treated people as collateral fodder, reducing morality to the status of a strategic and tactical tool? Using the story of Kissinger’s behaviour over Cyprus, backed up by recently revealed government documents, many critical, William Mallinson, former diplomat and leading authority on Cyprus’ history, provides an incisive analysis and evaluation of Kissinger’s approach, revealing a man who appears to have considered political strategy more important than law and ethics.