Thucydides on Strategy

Thucydides on Strategy: Grand Strategies in the Peloponnesian War and Their Relevance Today

A fresh look at the ancient general and scholar's classic History of the Peloponnesian War, from the perspective of modern diplomacy and war.

Masterfully crafted and surprisingly modern, History of the Peloponnesian War has long been celebrated as an insightful, eloquent, and exhaustively detailed work of classical Greek history. The text is also remarkable for its deep political and military dimensions, and scholars have begun to place the work alongside Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Clausewitz's On War as one of the great treatises on strategy.

The perfect companion to Thucydides' impressive history, this volume details the specific strategic concepts at work within the History of the Peloponnesian War. It demonstrates-through case studies of recent conflicts in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as an examination of the Thucydides trap and the growing Sino-American strategic antagonism-the continuing relevance of Thucydidean thought to an analysis and planning of strategic operations. Some have even credited Thucydides with founding the discipline of international relations.

Written by two scholars with extensive experience in this and related fields, Thucydides on Strategy situates the classical historian solidly in the modern world of war.

Review:

'[The authors] not only succeed in arguing for the relevance of Thucydides to contemporary policy and strategy, they also provide a valuable primer on strategy and grand strategy. [...] This book will be of interest to students of war and conflict, as well as to policymakers, soldiers and diplomats.' --

* Survival *

'This book will be a great success with students, both at universities and staff colleges.'

* The Journal of Strategic Studies *

'[This book] could, in fact, serve as a primer to grand strategy for the uninitiated. [...] If the sole aim of the authors of this volume is their stated aim, it can be regarded as an unmitigated success.'

* Journal of World History *

'It is ideally suited for use in war colleges and military theory courses [...] I highly recommend it to anyone seriously interested in strategy, policy, military history, and security studies.'

* Michigan War Studies Review *

'An excellent companion to [Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War], and an aid to the essential reflection that Thucydides's work requires.'

* RUSI Journal *

'The authors adhere to their goal in presenting a tight, focused, and clear analysis of Thucydides' understanding of grand strategy in the Peloponnesian War; the book will be especially useful to students of military history who already maintain a strong background in the historical circumstances of the war.'

* H-Net Reviews *

'An authoritative and novel study of Thucydides. Platias and Koliopoulos present a comprehensive typology of grand strategies in Thucydides' history, which has so much relevance today. Unable to fight and win a decisive battle against each other due to the existence of nuclear weapons, China and the United States may indeed be in for the "long game, thus running a "strategic marathon".'

-- Tang Xiaoyang, Chair of the Department of International Relations, Tsinghua University

'Thucydides on Strategy serves two distinct purposes. First, for students [...] it is a valuable compendium; it ensures discernment of lessons and enables seminar participation. Second, for the busy professional, Platias and Koliopoulos offer a viable option. Rather than investing time and effort reading and reflecting on Thucydides's work, [they] may prefer to read [this book].'

* Military Review *

'I read Thucydides on Strategy with considerable interest, pleasure, and care. The authors have made an original contribution to scholarship ... and have managed to synthesise a coherent whole that goes far to explain how Athens lost and the Peloponnesians won this war. In the course of doing this, they also manage to explain why Thucydides' work is a " for all time". They show that the same sorts of strategic questions and problems are likely to recur, again and again, as Thucydides says, so long as human nature remains the same, e.g., defining political objectives, matching a grand strategy to meet them, integrating a military strategy with the grand strategy, interacting with an enemy, avoiding overextension, and a whole range of other themes commonly studied by strategists today.'

* Karl Walling, Professor, Department of Policy and Strategy, United States Naval War College *

'An excellent companion to the History, and an aid to the essential reflection that Thucydides' work requires.'

* Lieutenant General (Retd) Sir John Kiszely, author of General Hastings 'Pug' Ismay: Soldier, Statesman, Diplomat-A New Biography *
'Thucydides, as he himself anticipated, wrote not only the history of the Peloponnesian War. He wrote the history of the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, World War II, and the Cold War.' * Louis Halle *

'International relations continue to be a recurring struggle for wealth and power among independent actors in a state of anarchy. The classic history of Thucydides is as meaningful a guide to the behaviour of states today as when it was written in the fifth century B.C.E.'

* Robert Gilpin *