Creating Necessity: Well-Used Violence in the Thought of Machiavelli

Vettius Messius said to his soldiers: "Follow me. There is neither wall nor rampart in the way, but just armed forces to oppose armed forces. In valour we are equal, but in necessity which is the last weapon and best of all, you have the advantage."

—Machiavelli, The Discourses on Livy (III:12)

In his State of the Union address in January 2003, President George W. Bush made the case for invading Iraq, even if the United Nations failed to approve military action. Offering a personal pledge, he remarked "Whatever action is required, whenever action is necessary, I will defend the freedom and security of the American people" (Bush 2003). On the fifth year anniversary of the Iraq War, he addressed critics of the war in a speech at the Pentagon by saying the "costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies," and ended the speech with the remark: "The battle in Iraq is noble; it is necessary; and it is just" (Bush 2008). When Barack Obama was elected later that year, it was in part due to his early opposition to the war and his pledge to withdraw from Iraq. However, in his speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, he affirmed the principle of necessity. Expressing admiration for Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, he averred that sometimes force is unfortunately required. Using the examples of Hitler and al Qaeda, he said: "Evil does exist in the world....To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism—it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason." For this reason, "I—like any head of state—reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend my nation" (Obama 2009).

A few thinkers, namely radical pacifists, have argued that violence is never necessary or justified. Some politicians and ideological movements, fascists most prominently in contemporary politics, have argued violence is good in its own right and therefore needs no justification. However, most contemporary politicians and modern political theorists forward the idea that violence is necessary. As the disagreement between President Bush and President Obama regarding the war in Iraq demonstrates, this pragmatic claim tells us little about when and what kind of violence is unavoidable. Those subjected to violence, whether individuals or states, usually do not agree with the assessment that violence inflicted upon them is necessary (although they often respond by arguing violence is the necessary response). Some of the disputes between luminaries of modern political thought can be viewed through this lens. Hobbes, Locke and Marx, for instance, each claim that violence is necessary, but what they think must be achieved through violence differs (e.g. to overawe dissenters, defend one's property, or end capitalism).

What, then, does the idea that violence is necessary mean? Why does violence seem necessary to some but not others in particular circumstances? The work of Machiavelli provides some clues. A number of scholars have noticed that in Machiavelli, necessità "is not just a hostile force [but] may create opportunities" (Gilbert 1965). Victoria Kahn writes that Machiavelli's invocation of the verità effettuale, or the "effectual truth," implies that "one does not simply imitate necessity but that one can manipulate it—effect it—to one's own advantage" (1993, 211). Claude Lefort says that for Machiavelli "the political art derives from the knowledge of necessity—a knowledge guided by the examination of extreme situations" (2000, 122). Vickie Sullivan writes that when Machiavelli describes necessity he "attempts, as far as possible, to make human beings its source" (1996, 181). These commentators set us on the trail of answers to the above questions that undermine some of our basic assumptions about necessity. Machiavelli suggests that trying to determine when violence is necessary or not misses the ways in which our very impressions of what is necessary are linked to how violence is practiced.

Extant scholarship offers a wide variety of opinions on Machiavelli's understanding of the proper role of violence in politics. Sheldon Wolin argues that Machiavelli counsels us...