2018/4b.plaintext

   1 charles is right the threats to the east are growing by the day in the southern region the ottomans
   2 are restless and in the north the three emperors area growing threat to our influence the foreign
   3 office seem paralysed focussed entirely on forming alliances and unable to determine their best
   4 strategy i think they are mistaken in their outlook they focus too much on treaties and not enough
   5 on realpolitik as von rocha u wrote the law of power governs the world of states just as the law of
   6 gravity governs the physical world and we are perhaps too much inclined to overlook the real might
   7 of the more powerful and the inevitability of its political influence our task now is not to choose
   8 a favoured partner to control the others that way risks war an alliance will encourage a counter
   9 alliance and a dangerous escalation instead our strategy should be to maintain an admittedly uneasy
  10 peace between the emperors together they are the biggest political threat to our empire but as
  11 enemies of one another they also threaten our trading routes we need to induce them to work together
  12 while preventing them from forming a power bloc against our interest our most important weapon in
  13 this is confusion and mild distrust the best outcome would be to encourage a dysfunctional alliance
  14 between all three that makes it hard for the emperors to fight one another or us and in the ottoman
  15 crisis i think i sense an opportunity to do just that