ISAS Special Reports

The Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) convened a two-day workshop in Singapore on 25 February 2016 to discuss the core concepts of Kautilya's Arthashastra and compare them with the politico-strategic writings of Sun-Tzu (The Art of War), Niccolo Machiavelli (Discorsi and Il Principe), Persia's Nizam ul-Mulk ('The Book of Government') and the political philosopher Barani (Fatwa-i-Jahandari). This international workshop was organised jointly with the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA), Delhi (India). The central endeavour at the workshop was to understand the manifest and latent influence of Kautilyan thought on the foreign policy and domestic politics of South Asia. The workshop also tried to establish whether there had been a 'trans-cultural flow' of Kautilyan thoughtfigures beyond the South Asian subcontinent.