Key Arguments

• He presents what precedes as foundational: he has 'laid down the true principles of political right, and tried to give the State a basis of its own to rest on,' indicating that the book’s primary achievement is grounding the internal legitimacy and structure of the body politic.
• He immediately contrasts this internal foundation with what still remains to be done: to 'strengthen it by its external relations,' implying that a full account of political right must address how states relate to one another and to the outside world.
• By enumerating topics such as 'the law of nations, commerce, the right of war and conquest, public right, leagues, negotiations, treaties, etc.,' he suggests that the internal principles of right are not sufficient in themselves without a corresponding doctrine of international and inter‑state right.

Source Quotes

CHAPTER IX: conclusion Now that I have laid down the true principles of political right, and tried to give the State a basis of its own to rest on, I ought next to strengthen it by its external relations, which would include the law of nations, commerce, the right of war and conquest, public right, leagues, negotiations, treaties, etc. But all this forms a new subject that is far too vast for my narrow scope. I ought throughout to have kept to a more limited sphere.

Key Concepts

• Now that I have laid down the true principles of political right, and tried to give the State a basis of its own to rest on
• I ought next to strengthen it by its external relations, which would include the law of nations, commerce, the right of war and conquest, public right, leagues, negotiations, treaties, etc.

Context

Opening sentences of Chapter IX ('conclusion'), where Rousseau summarizes what he has accomplished in The Social Contract and indicates the further, external dimensions of political right that would be needed to complete the theory.