30/04/2020

Created by Kamil Zwolski, PhD.

THUCYDIDES

A Greek (Athenian) historian,

political thinker, general (c.460
B.C.–c.400 B.C.)
• Witnessed and told the story of
Peloponnesian war fought between Sparta
(and its allies) and Athens (and its allies)
• One of the greatest works of written
history
• Aimed to write his account ‘not as an
essay which is to win the applause of the
moment, but as a possession for all time’

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Created by Kamil Zwolski, PhD.

Melian Dialogue
Athenian envoys arrive at the neutral state of
Melos to convince it to join Athens against
Sparta. Melians did not want to give up their
freedom

Thucydides recites the dialogue between

Melian officials and Athenian envoys, which
can be described as the first realist-idealist
debate

Melian “the right, as the world goes, is only in

dialogue: question between equal power, while
key the strong do what they can and the
quotes weak suffer what they must”

“As far as right goes...one has as much

of it as the other, and if any maintain
their independence, it is because they
are strong, and that if we do not molest
them, it is because we are afraid...”

Melian “Of the gods we believe, and of men we

dialogue: know, that by a necessary law of their
key nature they rule wherever they can. And
quotes it is not as if we were the first to make
this law, or to act upon it when made;
we found it existing before us, and will
leave it to exist forever after us; all we
do is to make use of it, knowing that
you and everybody else having the same
power as we have would do the same as
we do.”

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Created by Kamil Zwolski, PhD.

Link between Thucydides and

Realism
The History is It has and
It is meant to be
less than a book continues to
a historical
on the theory of inspire political
account but
international thinkers,
theoretical
relations but philosophers
propositions can
more than just (Hobbes) and
be found in
narration of modern IR
different places
events realists

Thucydides
and Modern IR realists can draw on History as
international early evidence for the central role of security
security in relations between states
(Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy)

States want power to get security; they

become worried when other states become
more powerful

He viewed the causes of Peloponnesian war

in the changing distribution of power: Athens
raising in power and Spartans worrying for
their security

Thucydides
and human
Human nature is at the core of modern
nature realism in IR
(Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy)

Humans are egoists and self-centred,

concerned with their own power, security
and well-being

“We have done nothing extraordinary,

nothing contrary to human nature in
accepting an empire when it was offered to
us and then in refusing to give it up.” (chap. 1
par. 76).

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Created by Kamil Zwolski, PhD.

Thucydides
and morality
As Melian Dialogue demonstrates, morality
(Stanford Encyclopedia of can never be more important in international
Philosophy)
relations than power and self-interest

The questions of what is right and wrong can

only be discussed between equal powers

There are no moral rights in relations

between states but only the right of the
stronger to dominate the weaker

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Thucydides’s Trap
Term comes from Graham Allison’s book Destined for
War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?
(2017)

Allison argues that war between China and America is

likely even if neither of them want it

This is because war breaks out when the distribution

of power changes and a raising power (Athens)
challenges an established power (Sparta)

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