Regional powers at loggerheads. Naval vessels in the east Mediterranean. Allies drawn into the fray with some calling for deescalation.

Thucydides surely did not lack ambition. He hoped his massive narrative would be “a possession for all time.” In writing his first and only book, Thucydides claimed It will be enough for me if these ...

How do you turn a metaphor into an axiom? Try: “Strategist appropriation.” When writing on politics and war, this means lardering your first few graphs with maxims from so-called “masters of war,” ...

Last month at War on the Rocks, Marine War College professor Jim Lacey held forth on how to teach Thucydides. Read the whole thing and hurry back! Let’s congratulate Professor Lacey for raising ...

Geopolitical tension looms over American politics, as was evident in last month’s debate when Kamala Harris claimed her rival “sold us out” to China. Though election rhetoric has heightened these ...

In the conflict between Athens and Sparta, the Melians tried in vain to maintain their neutrality. As Thucydides apprises us, the Athenians were rather blunt about the issue: “Right, as the world goes ...

Graham Allison, as early as 2013 but also last year in his book, “Destined for War,” created quite a buzz with his concept of the Thucydides’ Trap: “When one great power threatens to displace another, ...

This year is the 50th anniversary of the “Summer of Love,” those months in 1967 when a hundred thousand hippies convened in Haight-Ashbury. Flower children held a Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park, and ...

Thucydides, the ancient Greek historian of the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens, has long been considered the father of both scientific history and political realism. But how extensive is ...