Niccolò Machiavelli is the ultimate power maven.  I've read books on him to learn how to gain power and to defend myself against it.  Leslie Gelb's book "Power Rules: How Common Sense can Rescue American Policy" (HarperCollins, 2009) draws extensively on Machiavelli's cunning political treatise, "The Prince."

While editing Gelb’s Big Think interview, I wondered: How powerful would Machiavelli think he was?

Robert Greene's "The 48 Laws of Power" (Viking Press, 1998) also draws on Machiavelli's ruthlessness.  Greene's book includes, for instance, laws that teach you how to manipulate people ("Law 12: Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm your Victim") and how to be merciless ("Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally").  By mastering the laws however, one can use them for good.  For instance, one can learn to avoid manipulation ("Law 12") and to be merciful ("Law 15").  

I analyzed Leslie Gelb's Big Think interview to judge how powerful he is according to Robert Greene's schema.  That is, how many of Greene's 48 Laws of Power does Gelb follow or flout?  For instance, does he abide by "Law 14: Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy"?

Following is my analysis, tongue firmly in cheek.

Law 2: Never Put Too Much Trust in Friends, Learn How to Use Enemies

Gelb hints at the effective use of Law 2 by saying, "President George H. W. Bush, Secretary of State Baker, National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft did a brilliant job of ending the Cold War without war.  They helped Gorbachev relinquish his own empire in Eastern Europe and then helped him dismantle the Soviet Union while people in this country [the US] were screaming. [...] [T]hey handled the demise of the Soviet Union by helping them kill themselves off, another brilliant act of diplomacy."

Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions

Gelb, who was the director of the project that produced the controversial Pentagon Papers, refers to Law 3: "I think that most of what's been written about Pentagon Papers just isn't true.  They say that the Pentagon Papers show that history of United States and Vietnam is the story of lying.  That's what the Pentagon Papers prove, our leaders lie to us.  There was lying that went on from time to time, to be sure.  But by and large, we got involved in Vietnam because that's what we believed."

Law 7: Get Others to do the Work for You, but Always Take the Credit

Gelb abides by Law 7 by saying, "[Power [is] the ability to get others to do something they don't want to do.  It's a political and psychological relationship.  It's using carrot and sticks to create an impression in someone's mind of what you can do to help them or to harm them.  It's about pressure and coercion."  

Law 9: Win Through Your Actions, Never Through Argument

Gelb hints at Law 9 by saying, "[O]n the right side were the neoconservatives who said, hey, we're on the top of the mountain, we're now the sole superpower.  We can threaten military force to get our way.  Or if they don't observe our threats, we can actually use military force."  

Law 11: Learn to Keep People Dependent on You

Gelb discusses the concept of mutual indispensability, which relates to Law 11: "The United States is the indispensable leader but we don't have the power to dictate solutions.  We need to get things done to solve problems, exercise our leadership effectively.  We need equally indispensable partners.  And those are the other key nations of the world.  I say in the book that there are eight of them, Germany, Britain, France, Japan, China, Russia, India, and Brazil.  If you can put together some coalition of those countries, those become the equally indispensable partners.  So we're the indispensable leader, they're the indispensable partners.  Together, we can succeed.  Alone, we fail, time and again."  

Law 12: Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm Your Victim