Kauṭilya, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The neighbour is the enemy by position, not by hatred. The king situated anywhere immediately on the circumference of the conqueror's territory is termed the enemy, and the king close to that enemy but separated from the conqueror only by him is the friend.1 Two kings who touch borders want the same land. But I do not make every neighbour a natural enemy.
The natural enemy is the one equally of high birth who occupies the territory close to the conqueror; the merely antagonistic one who creates enemies for the conqueror is a factitious enemy.1 And the enemy is not one thing. A neighbouring foe of considerable power is an enemy; when he falls into calamity or evil ways he becomes assailable; with little or no help he becomes destructible; otherwise he deserves only to be harassed or reduced.1
The measure changes with his condition, and the policy changes with it. As to peace, you have half of it right. Every agreement is made with an eye to who over-reaches whom. Of two kings who covenant to acquire land, whoever gets the rich, fertile land with standing crops over-reaches the other; and if the land is equally rich, whoever takes it by putting down a powerful enemy wins more, since he gains territory, destroys a rival and augments his own power.2
So peace is a contest conducted by other means. Yet the same chapters teach that gain is not the whole of the calculation: a weak enemy's poor land leaves a once-friendly king on the border to become a new enemy, and land bordering a powerful enemy must be held at the cost of men and money.2 Nor is war the better road. When the advantages of peace and war are equal, one should prefer peace, for loss of power and wealth, sojourning and sin ever attend upon war.3
Peace is chosen by the weaker king who can neither harass his enemy's works nor defend his own, and who seeks protection from a superior in order to pass from deterioration to stagnation and from stagnation to progress.4 A king who is strong in his country and fortresses may keep open hostility; one who can neither hurt nor be hurt stays neutral; one who can make peace with one king and war on another adopts the double policy.4
Beyond the neighbour stand others. A friend may help you, and a friend who grows strong and unsubmissive must be set against his own neighbours. Yet a politician so keeps his friend that he neither deteriorates nor grows in power.5 So peace is neither a trap nor a kindness. It is the measure a king takes when his strength and his enemy's make it the better choice, and it lasts while that choice holds.
The would-be conqueror stands at the centre of a circle of kings: the king on his border is by nature his enemy, the king beyond the enemy his friend, and around them stand a middle king and a neutral one.67 Policy is the choice among six measures by relative power: whoever is weaker makes peace, whoever is stronger makes war, whoever can neither be hurt nor hurt stays quiet, whoever is helpless seeks protection.
A treaty serves an advantage and lasts while it does. Conquest is the aim, and a conquered people is kept by adopting its ways.8
The king who is situated anywhere immediately on the circumference of the conqueror's territory is termed the enemy.Arthasastra
Of the two kings thus entering into an agreement, whoever acquires a rich and fertile land with standing crops over-reaches the other.Arthasastra
When the advantages derivable from peace and war are of equal character, one should prefer peace; for disadvantages, such as the loss of power and wealth, sojourning, and sin, are ever attending upon war.Arthasastra
Then he shall seek protection from a king of superior power, and endeavour to pass from the stage of deterioration to that of stagnancy and from the latter to that of progress.Arthasastra
A politician should so keep his friend that the latter neither deteriorates nor grows in power.Arthasastra
This can be foreseen; but misfortune due to providence cannot be known. The king who, being!possessed of good character and bestfitted elements of sovereignty, is the fountain of policy, is termed the conqueror. The king who is situated anywhere immediately on the circumference of the conqueror's territory is termed the enemy.Arthasastra
If the Madhyama king is desirous of securing the conqueror's enemy as his friend, then the conqueror should indirectly (i.e. without being known to the Madhyama) help the enemy with wealth and army. If the Madhyama king desires to win the neutral king, the conqueror should sow the seeds of dissension between them.Arthasastra
Or the conqueror may employ a scion of the friend's family imprisoned prince to seize his lands; or the conqueror may so act that his friend, desirous of further help, may continue to be obedient. The conqueror should never help his friend when the latter is more and more deteriorating; a politician should so keep his friend that the latter neither deteriorats nor grows in power.Arthasastra
The doctrine for which students of international relations call him the first realist; the treatise ends its books on war with instructions to win over the conquered.