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