Kautilya: The First Great Political Realist

Kautilya: The First Great Political Realist is a succinct and penetrating analysis of one of the ancient world’s foremost political thinkers. Kautilya’s treatise Arthashastra stands as one of the great political books of the ancient world its ideas on the science of politics strikingly similar to those of Thucydides Machiavelli Hobbes Clausewitz and Sun Tsu. Roger Boesche was a renowned political theorist and longstanding professor at Occidental College in California. His excellent commentary on Kautilya’s text draws out the essential realist arguments for modern political analysis. He demonstrates the continued relevance of Kautilya’s work to modern Indian strategic thinking and our understanding of the relationship between politics and economics. Striking a balance between textual analysis and secondary scholarship Kautilya and His Arthashastra is an enduring contribution to the study of ancient Indian history political thought and international relations.