Drawing a parallel between modern day politics and Kautilya’s Arthashastra, National Security Adviser, Shri Shivshankar Menon on Wednesday said, “Kautilya offers distilled experiences of living and operating in a multi-state system, which long predates and is an alternative to Westphalian state system”. Shri Menon was delivering an inaugural address at the one day international seminar on Kautilya, organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), in collaboration with the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), on April 9, 2014.