Trias ethica : the rules of statecraft
Dieterman, C.J.
Citation
Dieterman, C. J. (2007, October 23). Trias ethica : the rules of statecraft. Retrieved from
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/12387
Version: Corrected Publisher’s Version
License: Licence agreement concerning inclusion of doctoral thesis in the
Institutional Repository of the University of Leiden
Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/12387
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This study is part of the Leiden University Law Faculty research program
‘Securing the Rule of Law in a World of Multilevel Jurisdiction:
Coherence, Institutional Principles and Fundamental Rights.’
Copyright © 2007 by Christward J. Dieterman, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by the copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
TRIAS ETHICA
THE RULES OF STATECRAFT
Proefschrift
ter verkrijging van
de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden,
op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. mr. P.F. van der Heijden, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties
te verdedigen op dinsdag 23 oktober 2007 klokke 15.00 uur
door
Christward Johannes Dieterman
geboren te ‘s-Gravenhage
in 1971
iv
Promotiecommissie:
Promotor: prof. dr. A. van Staden Referent: prof. dr. P.B. Cliteur
Leden: prof. dr. W. van Bunge (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam) prof. mr. N.J. Schrijver
dr. J.J.G. van der Bruggen
To Erika
vi
This book is designed to be a statesman’s companion. It may serve as a resource for his trusted advisors. They know, like nobody else, that it is harder to do good than to know it better. ‘What to do?’ is the question that bothers the statesman; ‘What to think of it?’ is what keeps all others busy. This book is concerned with the statesman’s perspective.
Machiavelli’s The Prince gave tips and tricks to those in power to stay in power. Erasmus’ The Education of a Christian Prince was about the character formation of those who are about to assume power. This book seeks to be of counsel to any Prince, President, or Prime Minister who is in charge of conducting both domestic and foreign affairs. It offers a framework for action as well as two rules. These rules are not designed to meet the taste of any particular public, but stipulate what is called for if one is genuinely seeking an answer to the question ‘What to do?’ for the public good, and more particularly in the international arena.
This book combines international theory and practice. It does not offer any blueprints, which emanate from theory alone. Nor does it offer any historical accounts or case descriptions, which are based on practice alone. Instead, it offers guidance in applying theory in practice by oneself.
It arrives at two rules of statecraft by following a geometrical method, much in the style of Grotius and Spinoza. The geometrical method is a distinctive feature of the present argument, which starts with an axiom from which all else follows. The axiom that is used in this book allows one to have any type of dualism (including the one between theory and practice), and have unity at the same time. This also allows one to overcome dualism in theory itself, and devise a general theory.
To devise a general theory and apply it to International Relations, is to challenge International Relations as a discipline. This is what the present theory does. It seeks to defeat the thesis that a general theory in International Relations is impossible. Two important groups of proponents of this thesis are scholars who stand in the respective traditions of International Society (or the English School) and Constructivism. The present theory takes issue with both traditions. It values both for the great contributions they have made within the discipline, but it demonstrates that these traditions fall short of the standards that the geometrical method sets. If the author disagrees with authors of high distinction and repute, it is solely because he has to, when following the line of reasoning that is warranted by the geometrical method.
Preface viii
Among the strongest claims this book makes is that it offers a general theory that reunites the Arts and Sciences. It asserts that International Relations cannot be studied in isolation, and that one has to understand what the findings in for instance Quantum Field Theory imply for all other fields of learning. Moreover, one may not only take recourse to the Sciences for advice on the Arts, but this also works the other way around. The present general theory makes a contribution in the latter regard by exacting how many dimensions a Theory of Everything must count.
Statecraft is the Master Science, or Master Art, for that matter.
This is what Plato and Aristotle already taught us. Everything has to come together here. This is why this book has a broad scope, even if its central problem is clear-cut. This is also why this book may be of interest to a broad public: not only to students of International Relations and Political Theory, but also of Philosophy, Theology, Psychology, and Physics. Especially, in Chapter 4, paragraph 1, which is the longest section of the book as well as the most fundamental one apart from Chapter 1, there seems to be something for all. Next, for those, who are not theoretically inclined or who have limited time, Chapter 1 and the Conclusion would do, which could be supplemented with the Introductions to both Parts. However, those who want to make use of this book as a companion, and use it in practice, may want to read the whole book to understand its logic. Understanding this logic may form the basis for own reflection and subsequent advice or action.
Statecraft is in the end about mastering it. There are no fixed answers to the question ‘What to do?’. This book offers two rules that can help him or her to find the best answer in any given case. Simple as these rules may be, they follow from the axiom, which is objectively true.
Combined these two rules offer a statesman’s standard framework.
Leiden, July 2007 Christward J. Dieterman
