The Competitiveness of States

Abstract

In late mediaeval Europe, in another international society beset with conflict, similar discussions took place about the policies which states and their rulers should pursue. There too a contrast was sometimes made between the dictates of morality and the necessities of state interest. And there too there was often an assumption that egoism and ruthlessness were an inevitable feature of relations between states, so that even those which may have wished otherwise were obliged to adopt self-seeking tactics in order to protect themselves from others.