Niccolò Machiavelli, an introduction.

When people call someone Machiavellian, they usually allude to cunning, manipulative, and strategic behaviour in pursuit of power or self-interest, often with little regard for conventional morality. It suggests someone who puts results over ethics, who can deceive, flatter, or manipulate to achieve their goals, and who is always thinking several steps ahead.

This comes from the popular reading of Machiavelli’s The Prince, where he advises rulers on how to maintain power in a dangerous, unstable world. Over time, the nuance has been lost in everyday language: Machiavelli’s work is often about pragmatism, adaptability, and understanding human nature, not necessarily amorality for its own sake.

Niccolò Machiavelli was born in Florence in 1469, right in the thick of Renaissance Italy, where politics was messy, alliances were fragile, and power was always up for grabs. He worked as a diplomat and civil servant for the Florentine Republic, rubbing shoulders with popes, princes, mercenaries; and learning first-hand how power is really exercised.

But Machiavelli’s most famous work, The Prince, was written not while he was at the centre of power, but in exile. Ousted when the Medici returned, he was dismissed, interrogated, tortured and forced out. That distance gave him clarity. He didn’t write about how leaders ought to behave, he wrote about how they do behave.

His key insight is sharp and unsettling: politics is not governed by virtue, but by strategy. You don’t survive by being good; you survive by being effective, by reading the moment, and by understanding what drives people. Machiavelli identifies some of these drivers as fear, ambition and self-interest. Machiavelli argues that the wise leader adapts: sometimes they must be merciful, sometimes cruel; kind, sometimes calculating. Stability doesn’t come from ideals alone, but from force, flexibility, and the ability to manage appearance.

He also recognised that fortune (luck) plays a huge role. You can plan, but you must also be ready to respond when circumstances shift. He warns leaders not to rely solely on goodwill, but to build strength, stay alert, and know when to act. Machiavelli doesn’t pretend politics is noble. Instead, he gives us a clear-eyed, strategic toolkit. His honesty isn’t cynical, it’s realistic. He asks us to stop believing in comfortable myths and start paying attention to the brutal, practical mechanics of power.

In short: Machiavelli teaches us how power works, not how it should work. And that makes him just as relevant today as he was in Renaissance Florence. Lets see how Machiavelli will deal with the news next week - whatever that brings !