Ideology of Power

The American moralist may know Emer Vattel as the source of that storied line in the United States Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness .” Vattel's influence came primarily from his magnum opus , The Law of Nations . Who was he, and what was it about his ideas that inspired a global philosophical crusade which took as its object the search for the meaning of life ? What does  Vattelian happiness , and what about that conception is applicable in the modern world?

William I, William the Conqueror, William the Bastard, first Norman King of England, lived from AD 1028 to 1087. He reigned as King from 1066 until his death, and brought the Common Law to what is now Britain. Here was the illegitimate son of Robert I, Duke of Normandy. Here was a man who ascended to the height of power by a combination of charisma, intrigue and strategy. For he who was stricken by the uncertainty of illegitimacy, his greatness was vindicated by his crowning as King at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. Here is what we can learn from him.

Frederick the Great (1712-1786) (also Frederick II and the King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786) perhaps epitomized the 'Great Men' of history, whose force of personality and charisma left lasting impression on the German legacy. Possessed of a mysterious character whose true nature cannot be fully discerned from his writings, Frederick was a loquacious yet mysterious persona. Frederick harbored personal animus toward his militaristic, controlling father (Frederick William), not least because of the trauma he suffered under his care. The conflict between controlling father and wayward son was a recurring theme in the story of succession of the Hohenzollern family. Yet even in light of the perennial tensions between Hohenzollern monarch and Crown Prince, according to the renown historian Christopher Clark, ‘never had the struggle between father and son been waged with such emotional and psychological intensity’.

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord was a French diplomat and renowned statesman who navigated the choppy and often lethal waters of international relations. His rare skill at diplomacy is even now feted by scholars and statesmen alike.