Keywords: Balance of power, ius gentium, international law, Frederick II
Both warfare and international politics underwent relevant changes in eighteenthcentury
Europe. Both the Silesian and the Seven Years wars differ under important
aspects from previous historical experience. This survey analyzes these unprecedented
events with a view to the political sensibility of its protagonists. It therefore highlights
the role of Frederick the Great and hints at the revelance of his personal
interpretation of events. His historical works and his political writings are constantly
examinated in their peculiar cultural background. They reveal Frederick's priorities
and his personal attitudes towards the western tradition of political and philosophical
thought. The ius gentium tradition, the politics of modern raison d'état and the diplomatic
practice of his time are all partially reconsidered in order to fit to the new historical
frame. An unprejudiced understanding of this uninterrupted work in progress
requires a kind of historical and theoretical research which disposes of dichotomies
and abandons too narrowly constructed conceptual categories.