The Foreign Service Journal, November 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2022 61 imprisoned, tortured, and finally exiled the statesman to his suburban estate. To Machia- velli’s enduring despair—albeit to the benefit of modern politi- cal thought—he never returned to public life. It was during this time that he wrote two major works, The Prince and Dis- courses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius . He also took pen in hand to coach a new Florentine ambas- sador. Why would the exiled statesman, likely still bitter, have wanted his enemy’s represen- tative to Spain to succeed? Machiavelli clearly treasured Raffaello as the son of a friend, so it must have been partly out of such sentiment that he offered his advice. But perhaps it was also out of a continued love of his country and a wish for its sur- vival in the emerging, deadly, game of nations—despite the fact that the city-state remained under his torturer’s rule. An Ambassador or a Prince? The elder statesman begins his “confidential instruction” by remarking that the greater the difficulties Raffaello faced as an ambassador, the greater the honor his countrymen would confer on him. Machiavelli continues: “Above all, a representative must strive to get reputation, which he does by striking actions which show him an able man and by being thought liberal and honest, not stingy and two-faced, and by not appearing to believe one thing and say another.” Those diplomats who are judged by their hosts to be duplicitous soon lose all trust as well as their sources of information, he explains. This does not sound like the Machiavelli we thought we knew. That would be the much-maligned author of The Prince , who argues: “One sees from experience … that the princes who have accomplished great deeds are those who have thought little about keeping faith and who have known how cunningly to manipulate men’s minds; and in the end they have surpassed those who laid their foundations upon sincerity.” Perhaps Machiavelli is making a distinction between ruling as a prince and conducting diplomacy as an ambassador. For, as we shall see, the task of the ambassador is not to establish rule over his rivals, but to build bonds of trust with the host-country elite. Or maybe there’s not that much difference between the prince and the ambassador, after all. Machiavelli does not urge Raf- faello to be a good and just man, but to “[act] on every occasion like a good and just man” (emphasis mine). Here we recall a passage in The Prince in which Machiavelli argues: “It is not necessary for a prince to possess all of the above- mentioned [virtues], but it is very necessary for him to appear to possess them. Furthermore, I shall dare to assert this: that hav- ing them and always observing them is harmful, but appearing to observe them is useful.” Returning to the letter, Machiavelli seems to certify the latter interpretation by counseling Raffaello: “And if … sometimes you need to conceal a fact with words, do it in such a way that it does not become known or, if it does become known, that you have a ready and quick defense.” What Makes a Good Ambassador? But what, for Machiavelli, makes a good ambassador? In his book The Arts of Power (USIP, 1997), former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman enumerates the tasks of the modern diplomat. According to Freeman, diplomats act as agents of their government. They are advocates of their government’s policies and negotiate on its behalf. They establish facilitative relation- ships with host-country elites, report on and analyze local developments, and recommend to their government courses of action designed to advance national interests. Diplomats protect their compatriots, promote trade, and cultivate a positive image of their home country, Freeman adds. The ambassador’s job as Machiavelli describes it in the letter to Raffaello, however, has a narrower scope. He focuses on con- ducting contact work, arriving at judgments on the basis of infor- mation derived from contacts, and reporting these effectively to the home government. Perhaps the mentor limits the ambassa- dor’s field of play to these three areas to keep things simple given Raffaello’s inexperience, which Machiavelli points out at the opening of the letter. The functions of the chief of mission had not been fully established in Machiavelli’s day, and it isn’t clear what powers the Medici had conferred on Raffaello. The text Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527). PALAZZIVECCHIO