In chapter 14 of The Prince, Machiavelli asserts that a Prince should never "lift his thought from the exercise of war (85)." For a prince to be successful, he must be fluent in the art of war, which will lead to acquiring a principality. Not only must the prince study the art of war, but he also must take initiative and be active in the principality by being in it directly and gaining knowledge and familiarity of the area.
This assertion, to me, sounds a lot like the basis for the United States foreign policy as almost every political debate regarding foreign affairs is lead by a discussion on military action. In the interview with Noam Chomsky on truth-out.org, Chomsky points out a cliché analogy of how the US uses its power: "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." However, the actions of the US do no necessarily follow with the Machiavellian assertion as the US tends to use military power for everything as it has been the strongest military power in the world since the First World War. Machiavelli points out that a successful prince must not only have strong military knowledge, but also an understanding of his surroundings, of which the US has little to none.
The idea that a successful prince will arise from a strong grasp of military knowledge and practice has worked before in the past, as seen in Machiavelli's example of Francesco Sforza. However, it does not ring true anymore as the United States' military advances in the past ten years or so have proved to be more disastrous than successful due to an over-dependence on military power and a lack of familiarity with the other countries.
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