An analysis of the relevance of Thucydides to modern international relations theory.
Written in 2005; 1,634 words; 8 sources; MLA; $ 53.95
Paper Summary:
Thucydides is seen by some scholars as the first writer in the realist tradition as well as the founding father of international relations. This paper adopts a realist interpretation of Thucydides and argues that he is still relevant today due to the prevalence of fear, self interest and power politics in today's world. The paper uses competing interpretations of his work to show that, even though there are important differences between his world and today's world, his insights into human nature are relevant and are one of the best sources to learn from history.
From the Paper:
"Thucydides' work is valuable as it investigates the causes and dynamics of war. He states: "What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta." According to Lebow, power transition theories are based on the premise that hegemons are unwilling to relinquish their status to upcoming powers. Power transition theories investigate how a shift in an actor's power in the system affects other actors. Theorists stress the critical importance of changes in the relative power of states as these changes produce fear and result in the security dilemma. Thus the system becomes increasingly unstable and small events can precipitate a major conflict. Sparta was afraid that a shift in the balance of power would be to the detriment of its national security and thus according to power transition theory it felt aggression was necessary to address the imbalance. A theme that dominates Thucydides narrative is how fear in conjunction with honour and interest result in a state taking action in the hope of safeguarding its national security and independence. The Peloponnesian war was the product of two developments. "
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