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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2015
In the disciplines of political science and international relations, Machiavelli is unanimously considered to be “the first modern realist.” This essay argues that the idea of a realist tradition going from the Renaissance to postwar realism founders when one considers the disrepute of Machiavelli among early international relations theorists. It suggests that the transformation of Machiavelli into a realist thinker took place subsequently, when new historical scholarship, informed by strategic and political considerations related to the transformation of the US into a global power, generated a new picture of the Renaissance. Focusing on the work of Felix Gilbert, and in particular his Machiavelli and Guicciardini, the essay shows how this new interpretation of Machiavelli was shaped by the crisis of the 1930s, the emergence of security studies, and the philanthropic sponsorship of international relations theory.
I would like to thank Samuel Moyn and three anonymous reviewers for their comments on a prior version of this paper. I greatly benefited from discussions with Volker Berghahn, Anthony Molho, and Jacques Revel. I am grateful to the participants of the ISERP-Political Theory Network at Columbia University and in particular to Nate Mull; to Tjorborn Knutsen and the participants of an ISA panel on “The Prehistory of IR Theory” in Toronto; and to members of the School of Public and International at the University Ottawa for allowing me to develop the ideas contained in this paper. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) Grant Agreement no [284231].
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