Ideas in Politics Conference: Still Passionate About Machiavelli

The 3rd Ideas in Politics International Conference was organized by the Institute of Political Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in cooperation with Anglo-American University in Prague and the Department of Political Science at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University.

On November 15–16, AAU hosted another international conference from the Ideas in Politics cycle – a biennial series of conferences in political theory, political philosophy and related disciplines – organized by the Institute of Political Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University together with the Anglo-American University. In this year’s edition, the panels and keynote lectures were dedicated to Machiavelli and Contemporary Politics.

Machiavelli’s thought not only had a huge influence on the development of modern political philosophy, but his ideas continue to inspire – and divide – political theorists even today. The recent history of Machiavellian scholarship could be described in this way:  Interpretation of Machiavelli as a teacher of evil (e.g. Strauss 1958) has been repudiated by the Cambridge school scholars (e.g. Skinner 1978, Pocock 1975) who portray Machiavelli as a champion of republican liberty and even suggest his teaching as a panacea for the contemporary democratic malaise. Since then we have witnessed a proliferation of different interpretations of Machiavelli’s teaching putting Machiavelli at the centre of many recent debates within the field.

We are happy to report over 40 speakers from all over the world including these 5 keynote speakers: Filippo Del Lucchese (Brunel University London), Jeffrey Green (University of Pennsylvania), Lawrence Hamilton (University of Cambridge), Vittorio Morfino (Università di Milano Bicocca) and Yves Winter (McGill University in Montreal) and many more guests including AAU faculty and students. The School of IRD was represented by Tereza Smejkalová, who presented her paper on The Role of Violence in Russian Politics and Machiavelli’s Perspective.

Attached to this conference was an Academic Writing Workshop for young researchers and our students with Jan Kovář of the Institute of International Relations, deputy-chief editor of the Czech Journal of International Relations. 

This conference would never have taken place without Jakub Franěk who coordinated the multi-institutional, multi-headed organisational team; thank you Jakub for putting together another excellent event! This conference was also administratively and financially supported by the School of International Relations & Diplomacy.

You can find the full conference photo gallery HERE.