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Articles

Critical Security in the Twenty-First Century: The Resonating Voices of Thucydides

Pages 108-120 | Published online: 19 Nov 2012
 

Abstract

What makes Thucydides' work so relevant for global politics today is the analytic of how the story is told. Three points stand out. First, “The Peloponnesian war” features a momentous epistemological jump. Second, his work is not subject to the stultifying shackles of ideological boundaries. Finally, the unraveling of the 27-year epic war is told through a multitude of competing voices that evokes the reader to interpret the text's ultimate meaning.

Notes

1See Thucydides (Citation1996, 93). For another good translation of Thucydides, see Thucydides Citation(1998).

2Beyond other works cited here, for further discussions of the significance of Thucydides' work, see Bruell Citation(1974), Cartwright Citation(1997), Connor Citation(1977), Crane Citation(1998), Croix (1981), Edmunds Citation(1975), Kagan Citation(1969), Lebow Citation(2001), Orwin Citation(1994), Rawlings Citation(1981), Reeve Citation(1999), Sears Citation(1977), Singer Citation(1999), Stadter Citation(1973), and Workman ( 2001).

3For a discussion of interpretations of Thucydides in the realist tradition, and with an emphasis on points such as objectivity, see, for example, Bagle Citation(1994), Doyle Citation(1990), Monten Citation(2006), and Forde Citation(1995).

4Regarding complexity theory and ecocide, see Homer-Dixon (Citation1996, Citation2006).

5For a broader discussion of the RMA, see: Latham Citation(1999), Gat Citation(1989), Krepinevich Citation(1994), Dartness Citation(1999), Dokubo Citation(2000), Metz Citation(2000), and Rochlin Citation(2007).

6See, for example, Armijo Citation(2007) and Georgieva Citation(2006).

7See Rochlin Citation(2003) and the webpage of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, www.ezln.org.

8For another look at Thucydides' use of language, see Lebow (Citation2001, 548, 555).

9See chapter 2 of Rochlin Citation(2007).

10See for example Athens' fear of revolt within its empire (Thucydides Citation1996, 309). For a broader discussion of these, see Garst Citation(1989).

11See, for example, Amorosos Citation(2008). See also UNASUR's website, www.pptunasur.com.

12See Brown University's Eisenhower Research Project, “Costs of war,” http://costsofwar.org.

13The discussion of alliances in relation to the causation of war is most apparent in Book One, where Thucydides shows how subordinate powers lured Athens and Sparta into war.

14See Sun Tzu Citation(1998), Khaldun Citation(1987), and Khadduri Citation(1966).

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