Not to poach Rufus’s patch, but Walter Russell Mead has a pretty interesting post on Thucydides and American grand strategy (For those interested, our resident classicist’s “Blogging the Canon” series covered Thucydides here).
4 thoughts on “Thucydides and Grand Strategy”
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It’s a cool link. I should say that I only really appear to be a classicist because I’ve been going through the canon so slowly.Report
It is an interesting take, thanks for the link Will (and Rufus, for your post) enjoyable reads both.
(sidenote) For whatever the differences in internal composition between Athens and Sparta I’m always a little disappointed in how unchallenged a natural American proclivity to see democratic Athens as our historical counterpart is. The striking thing to me, at least in a cold war context, is how similar the Delian league was to the Warsaw Pact. Athens’ treatment of her allies was at times as ruthless and ideological as Moscow.
I did find the treatment of personal and distant fear to be incredibly interesting and agree that Kagan’s peloponnesian war is a good read and great introduction to the subject.Report
Glad somebody is reading Rufus’s consistently excellent posts. Every time he puts up another entry on the classics that gets like three comments, I lose a little bit more faith in the internet.Report
What could possibly compare to Sparta in these times?
They made us study the Sicilian Expedition in the Army. Wars sometimes turn on the opinions of the bystanders.Report