SISU-105.015 F2019 blog question #3

Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War is a classic of international studies: a detailed account of a power struggle between the Athenian city-states of Athens and Sparta, featuring military and diplomatic maneuvers, as well as contests for leadership within various polities based on their visions of how the war ought to be conducted, all conducted in the shadow of the Persian empire in the fifth century BCE (as denominated in the calendar “common” to the U.S. and to other places colonized by Europeans). We aren’t reading any Thucydides in this class because there is limited syllabus space. But Thucydides is a standard point of reference in international studies, especially Anglophone international studies, often classified as a “realist,” by some accounts the first realist, on the strength of moments in the text like this (in)famous excerpt from a debate between representatives of Athens (the Athenians) and the representatives of Melos (the Melians) in which the Athenians are trying to persuade the Melians to lay down their arms without a fight, since the Athenians have a clearly superior force, and the Melians object that simply submitting to power is not fair:

Athenians: ...you know as well as we do that, when these matters are discussed by practical people, the standard of justice depends on the equality of power to compel and that in fact the strong do what they have the power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.

Melians: Then in our view (since you force us to leave justice out of account and to confine ourself to self-interest) — in our view it is at any rate useful that you should not destroy a principle that is to the general good of all men — namely, that in the case of all who fall into danger there should be such a thing as fair play and just dealing...

(Book Five, §89-90)

It's actually a fairly tricky point of Thucydides scholarship as to whether the author himself should be identified with what has come to be known as the “Athenian thesis” about the nature of politics, but regardless, the “Athenian thesis” is a good basic statement of political realism.

For your blog question this week I want you to think about which, if any, characters in The Truth About Awiti would agree with the “Athenian thesis” that justice is a secondary consideration and only power matters in politics, and which characters, if any, would not agree. Be textually precise; use specific textual passages from the novel to make your case. And note that I am not asking you to give your opinion on this issue; time enough for that in class when we turn to Machiavelli next week!