CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY (Sam Faddis) - Thucydides and impending war with China
Originally published by AND Magazine
In his opening remarks to President Trump before the recently completed summit in Beijing, Chinese leader Xi Jinping had this to say . “The world has come to another crossroads. Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides Trap and create a new paradigm of major country relations?” There has been a lot of buzz in the press about this comment. Most of it fails to adequately address its true import. Let me explain. Thucydides lived in Athens in the 5th century BC. He was, among other things, a general in the Peloponnesian War, a devastating conflict between Athens and Sparta and their allies in which Athens was ultimately forced to surrender. He subsequently wrote a famous history of that conflict, which was effectively a…Open