Thucydides, International Law, and International Anarchy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Eckstein
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Interstate Relations ◽  
Greek City ◽  
City States ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
International Anarchy

Ancient Greek city-states existed in a world that was essentially bereft of international law. This lack of international law had profound effects on international relations. The anarchic environment encouraged the development of heavily militarized and diplomatically aggressive societies. The prevalence of such societies, combined with the absence of any overarching authority over them, made wars between polities common. Faced with a conflict of interest with another polity, every government independently decided what constituted justice for itself, and—in the absence of international law--all governments had to be ready to use violence or the threat of violence to enforce that view of justice. Hellenic intellectuals—most famously Thucydides, but including Aristotle and Demosthenes--reacted to the anarchy by hypothesizing that interstate relations were determined above all by relations of power. Thucydides expressed this view of power-politics in international life most clearly in what is called the Melian Dialogue (Thuc. 5.84-116). This essay also emphasizes Thucydides’ analysis of the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (1.23), and underlines the nature of what he considered “the truest cause” (1.23.6) of that devastating conflict, demonstrating that the shift in the balance of power (ibid.) expressed itself in the specific “quarrels and disputes” of 1.23.5, so that there is no contradiction between the two Thucydidean explanations.

The Constitutional Structure of International Society and the Nature of Fundamental Institutions

1997 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 555-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Reus-Smit
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Society ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
Institutional Practices ◽  
Interstate Relations ◽  
American Hegemony ◽  
City States ◽  
The City

Modern states have constructed a multiplicity of issue-specific regimes to facilitate collective action. The majority of these institutions are specific instances of the deeper institutional practices that structure modern international society, notably the fundamental institutions of contractual international law and multilateralism. Two observations can be made about fundamental institutions. First, they are “generic” structural elements of international societies. That is, their practice transcends changes in the balance of power and the configuration of interests, even if their density and efficacy vary. The modern practices of contractual international law and multilateralism intensified after 1945, but postwar developments built on institutional principles that were first endorsed by states during the nineteenth century and structured international relations long before the advent of American hegemony. Second, fundamental institutions differ from one society of states to another. While the governance of modern international society rests on the institutions of contractual international law and multilateralism, no such institutions evolved in ancient Greece. Instead, the city-states developed a sophisticated and successful system of third-party arbitration to facilitate ordered interstate relations. This institution, which operated in the absence of a body of codified interstate law, is best characterized as “authoritative trilateralism.”

The Moral Purpose of the State: Culture, Social Identity, and Institutional Rationality in International Relations. By Christian Reus-Smit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. 199p. $35.00.

2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 264-265
Author(s):  
Jennifer Sterling-Folker
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Greek City ◽  
State Culture ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Italian City ◽  
City States ◽  
Institutional Rationality ◽  
Modern Nation State

The central puzzle motivating this book is why different systems of sovereign states develop different types of systemic institutions. Why did Greek city-states favor arbitration, whereas Italian city-states adopted what the author calls "oratorical diplomacy," the absolutist state preferred "old diplomacy" instead, and the modern nation-state relies on international law and multilateralism?

The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Law

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Interstate Relations ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
City States

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. For more information, please read the site FAQs. The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Law is a general introduction to the law and legal procedure of Greece from the Archaic period to the Roman conquest. The handbook provides a reliable survey of the evidence and a critical evaluation of recent trends in scholarship. Among the contributors are some of the foremost experts in the field. It covers all aspects of ancient Greek law and the major topics of scholarly debate and reviews the status of the available evidence, especially the epigraphical material. As a whole, the handbook offers new perspectives, while at the same time discussing important avenues for future research. The volume attempts to do justice to the local features of the legal system of the numerous Greek city-states, while at the same time outlining the general legal principles that bound the Greek cities together. Some chapters examine individual poleis (Athens, Sparta, Gortyn, Ptolemaic Egypt), whole others are devoted to comparative studies of specific topics in the field: constitutional law, citizenship, marriage law, control of magistrates, law and economy, slavery and manumission, interstate relations, and amnesties aimed at ending stasis. Several chapters also examine the connection between law and political philosophy in the ancient Greek world. Each chapter starts by placing the topic within the larger historical context, then provides an overview of the evidence and methodological issues, detailed discussion of major topcis, and a critical evaluation of recent trends in scholarship.

Balance of Power

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Underwood ◽  
T.V. Paul
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Significant Variable ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Strong State ◽  
Self Help ◽  
International Stability ◽  
P Balance ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
International Anarchy

Balance of power is one of the most discussed and contested theoretical and policy concepts in international relations. It is in fact the bedrock of realism of all varieties, in particular classical and structural, and it is the most significant variable in systemic theories of international stability. The idea of balancing power has been popular since 17th-century Europe, although it was around in some fashion in ancient Greek, Indian, and Chinese statecraft. Beginning with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, it took a prominent role in legal and political thought, with legal theorists and policymakers seeing the concept as central to considerations of international law and strategy. The fact that balance of power has found enduring relevance to scholars and policymakers throughout the ages suggests that the theory is one whose value should be carefully considered. The theory holds that when power is balanced among competing states, peace is obtained, but disequilibrium in power means a strong state can attack a weaker state and rob the latter of its security and independence. The goal of balance of power is to prevent any power from becoming too strong, first by deterring aggression, but if that fails, by ensuring that the aggressor does not significantly alter the balance of power. For realists, balance of power is born in the crucible of international anarchy. It is either a tool that states manually use to keep the power and aggressive behavior of other states in check, or a state of affairs generated by power competition among states. According to realism, states fear other states, and international anarchy creates a self-help system where one’s own strength and ability to find allies with similar interests are the only means to achieve security.

scholarly journals Socio-cultural condition of modern relations of Ukraine and Canada

2019 ◽  
pp. 25-28
Author(s):  
В.В. Михайлюк
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Interstate Relations ◽  
Legal Documents ◽  
Monographic Study ◽  
International Perspectives ◽  
The Right ◽  
Cultural Components

The author relied on the research of his predecessors and determined his own purpose of the study: to analyze the state of socio-cultural and cultural-humanitarian relations of Ukraine and Canada, to identify trends and their peculiarities in the context of general interstate and international relations of friendly countries. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the interstate relations in the defined field of research were based on the relevant legal documents of international law and treaties and other legal acts of each state. With regard to international relations, the author distinguishes it as such as the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada had and has its own peculiarities. This community is now one of the most significant in the world in its quantitative and qualitative relations, in political, socio-cultural and cultural-humanitarian influence. Therefore, in an advanced democracy of Canadian society, Ukrainians began to take the place of not only "aliens without rights", but also for many years prior to today, became active participants not only in the cultural, humanitarian, but also socio-economic and political life of Canada, which had a positive impact on socio-cultural and other relations. This is emphasized not only by the Ukrainian but also the Canadian side. Therefore, the study of socio-cultural and humanitarian-cultural components of relations between Ukraine and Canada has the right to exist. At the same time, it emphasizes the relevance and scientific novelty of the research topic. The problem under consideration is multifaceted, covering many aspects. In this study, only partial consideration of Ukraine-Canada relations in interstate and international perspectives has been studied. The importance of international and interstate relevant structures in terms of their influence on relations is emphasized. At the same time, in the author's opinion, it requires a detailed monographic study of the problem: the relation of Canada's role with Ukraine in the system of the "blocked" world.

David Hume’s Balancing Act: The Political Discourses and the Sinews of War

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
DANIELLE CHARETTE
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
David Hume ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Approach ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
Balance Of Trade

Both champions and critics of “neorealism” in contemporary international relations misinterpret David Hume as an early spokesman for a universal and scientific balance-of-power theory. This article instead treats Hume’s “Of the Balance of Power,” alongside the other essays in his Political Discourses (1752), as conceptual resources for a historically inflected analysis of state balancing. Hume’s defense of the balance of power cannot be divorced from his critique of commercial warfare in “Of the Balance of Trade” and “Of the Jealousy of Trade.” To better appreciate Hume’s historical and economic approach to foreign policy, this article places Hume in conversation with Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Andrew Fletcher, and Montesquieu. International relations scholars suspicious of static paradigms should reconsider Hume’s genealogy of the balance of power, which differs from the standard liberal and neorealist accounts. Well before International Political Economy developed as a formal subdiscipline, Hume was conceptually treating economics and power politics in tandem.

Helsinki Syndrome: The Parachronistic Renaissance of Finlandization in International Politics

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tapio Juntunen
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Original Process ◽  
The Past ◽  
Great Power Politics ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Ukraine Crisis ◽  
International Anarchy

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has produced a number of commentaries that have tried to grasp the crisis through the comforting lens of historical analogies. One of the most perplexing of these has been the revival of Finlandization, or the idea of the “Finnish model” as a possible solution to the Ukraine crisis. In this article I interrogate these arguments, firstly, by historicising the original process of Finlandization during the Cold War. Secondly, I argue that the renaissance of Finlandization is based on parachronistic reasoning. In other words, the Finlandization analogy has been applied to modern-day Ukraine in such a way that the alien elements of the past context are, to paraphrase Quentin Skinner, “dissolved into an apparent but misleading familiarity” in the present re-appropriation of the idea and its contextual prerequisites. Indeed, the reappearance of Finlandization in the context of the Ukraine crisis reinforces the idea that the real drivers of international affairs can be reduced to the axioms derived from the transhistorical logic of international anarchy and the iron laws of great power politics. Thus, this article makes a novel contribution to the theoretical discussion on the role of analogies and myths in International Relations.

Topography of Athens

Classics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey M. Hurwit ◽  
Ioannis Mitsios
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Aegean Sea ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Urban Core ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
History Of ◽  
City States ◽  
City State ◽  
The City

The ancient city-state (or polis) of Athens was contiguous with the region known as Attica, a large, triangular peninsula extending southeastward from the Greek mainland into the Aegean Sea. In the western angle of Attica, on a coastal plain surrounded by four mountains (Hymettos, Pentelikon, Parnes, and Aigaleos), lay the city itself. Although the modern city has thickly spread up the slopes of the mountains as well as to the sea, the study of Athenian topography concentrates on the monuments, buildings, and spaces of the ancient urban core, an area roughly 3 square kilometers surrounding the Acropolis and defended in the Classical period by a wall some 6.5 kilometers in length. Athens is the ancient Greek city that we know best, and it is unquestionably the Greek city whose art, architecture, literature, philosophy, and political history have had the greatest impact on the Western tradition and imagination. As a result, “Athenian” is sometimes considered synonymous with “Greek.” It is not. In many respects, Athens was exceptional among Greek city-states, not typical: it was a very different place from, say, Thebes or Sparta. Still, the study of Athens, its monuments, and its culture needs no defense, and the charge of “Athenocentrism” is a hollow indictment when one stands before the Parthenon or holds a copy of Sophocles’ Antigone. This article will refer to the following periods in the history of Athens and Greece (the dates are conventional): late Bronze, or Mycenaean, Age (1550–1100 bce); Dark Age (1100–760 bce); Archaic (760–480 bce); Classical (480–323 bce); Hellenistic (323 –31 bce); and Roman (31 BCE–c. 475 ce).

Kant and the Kantian paradigm in international relations

1990 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Hurrell
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
State System ◽  
Interstate Relations ◽  
World Government ◽  
Perpetual Peace ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
International Anarchy ◽  
Lasting Influence

Although few in number and limited in scope, Kant's writings on international relations have had a lasting influence and have given rise to a wide range of interpretations. Kant's famous pamphlet, Perpetual Peace, has been seen as advocating federalism, world government, a League of Nations-type security system and outright pacifism. Underlying much of the debate on Kant lies a divergence over the relationship between what might broadly be called the ‘statist’ and the ‘cosmopolitan’ sides of Kant's writings. On one side, there are those who argue that Kant is primarily concerned with order at the level of interstate relations. Kant, it is argued, did not want to transcend the state system but to improve it. He wanted to subject the international anarchy to law and to find a solution to the problem of war but in a way which would not sacrifice the essential autonomy and independence of states.

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