Thucydides in Greece to Carney in Davos: What does India make of insights from ancient times?

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Recently, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada delivered a talk on rupture to rapturous applause. At Davos, Carney’s attention-getting point was about the end of the international “rules-based order" and its replacement by “might is right." In his view, this rupture is real and irrevocable and demands both individual and collective action by “middle powers." Deservingly, he has been praised for his courage and clear-headed reading of realpolitik.

Carney suggested that Thucydides’s aphorism that “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must" need not be considered inevitable in this new order. Writing about 2,400 years ago, Thucydides, a historian and general in ancient Greece, offered profound insights into the nuanced interplay of national power and human nature. In his work, History of the Peloponnesian War, he delves into the conflict between Athens (a naval great power) and Sparta (a land-based great power).

Through a series of dialogues and debates, he showcases the nature of discourse between Athens and other Greek city-states of the time. In the Melian dialogue, for instance, he presents Athens as an unapologetic hegemon and the neutral state of Melos as a principled though naïve city-state. The Mytilenean debate features two Athenian politicians with differing points of view arguing about whether to eliminate the entire population of Mytilene.

A critical and deep reading of Thucydides reveals that he had a nuanced view of the use of power. He did believe that fear, honour and self-interest were the primary drivers of human nature and international relationships. He also believed that the consequences of disregarding moral imperatives led to conflicts,