Peloponnesian War

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Peloponnesian War

The History of the Peloponnesian War has been described as the only acknowledged classic text in international relations , and its author has been applauded for his scientific analysis of interstate politics . It is ostensibly an account of the war between Sparta and its allies and Athens and is allies that took place 431-404 BC , punctuated by the precarious peace of Nicias (421-414 BC . It is because the book is much

more than a chronicle of events , and because a theoretical position can be extrapolated from it , that it has become an exemplar for critics and sympathizers alike of the philosophy of Realism in international relations . For some , it is the archetypal statement of power politics equating might with right , or the epitome of alliance politics and the delicate balance of power . For others the Peloponnesian War is the quintessential expression of the security dilemma which is occasioned by the ambiguity of intention , offensive or defensive , consequent upon the build-up of another country 's military capacity . Furthermore Thucydides has been identified as the prototype structural Realist and an implied third-image theorist who sees the major causes of war not within the psychology of man , or the internal structure of the state but primarily within the state system itself

Thucydides is not for every theorist of international relations an unremitting Realist . Many have detected , in varying degrees of mitigation , a moralism that tempers or even bemoans the cold-hearted and clinical ruthlessness of some of the historical characters he portrays Michael Smith suggests that Thucydides ' Realism is tempered by a sense of brooding tragedy , a profound regret that this is the way of the world . An extension of this view portrays Thucydidesn as a moralist intimating the inappropriateness of the depraved and shrewd Athenian Realism , in such passages as the Melian Dialogue , to such a noble people as the Athenians . On this reading the Peloponnesian War is a morality play in the spirit of classical Greek tragedy

Because of the centrality of Thucydides ' text to the traditions of Realism and neo-Realism , postmodernist international relations thinkers have complained of the selective privileging of aspects of the history by the proponents of the dominant paradigms . Jim George argues , for example : illustrating that the "great texts " of International Relations can be read in ways entirely contrary to their ritualized disciplinary treatment is , consequently , to open up space for other ways of reading global life , effectively and powerfully blocked off under a foundationalist textual regime ' They object to the appropriation of Thucydides exclusively in terms of his scientific rationalism and universal laws of behaviour , which are grounded in self-interest and power politics . Thucydides presented as a clinical detached observer not only displays an epistemological napvety in believing that the Athenians generally told things as they really were (the correspondence theory of truth , but ignores the extent to which he became passionately involved with the subject-matter . In writings of...