Changes

Thucydides was a skeptic and adopted a relativist approach to justice and morality, in his work and it appears that he was apparently greatly influenced by the philosophers known as the Sophists. His philosophical position is that human beings are motivated by power and their needs. In 431 BC, [[What were the causes of the Peloponnesian War ?|the Peloponnesian War]] broke out between Sparta and Athens. The Peloponnesian War was a brutal conflict for dominance of the Greek world (431-404 BC). In 421 BC, Thucydides was elected a strategos or general by the Athenian popular Assembly. This appointment suggests that he was already an experienced military commander and was a well-known public figure. It is clear based on the reading of his later work that he was an admirer of the Athenian politician Pericles and was possibly associated with the popular party in the city.

He was the first to really propose a theory of war, which he believed was a result of the interaction of human nature, national interests, and chance events. The former general’s thesis in the History of the Peloponnesian War is that the war between Sparta and Athens was inevitable. The disgraced general believed that when a rising power such as Athens comes into contact with an established power such as Sparta that conflict is inevitable. In the words of Thucydides ‘It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable’ inevitable.’<ref> Thucydides, I, 22</ref>. It is  He believed that it was inevitable that the a rising power will would seek to displace the existing power and this is because humans want to dominate the weaker. This has become known been referred to as the Thucydides trapTrap, which roughly is the proposition that when a new power emerges that it is inevitable that there is going to be a war. It should be noted that it was not Thucydides who named this concept, but it was rather named after him, by academics in the twentieth century. This concept based on Thucydides' thesis on the origins of the Peloponnesian War has been enormously influential among politicians and diplomats.

Thucydides has been enormously influential in histography. His objectivity, rationalism and systematic collection of data had led him to be called the Father of History. However, he was also a great writer and his work is also regarded as a literary masterpiece, which many read as they would a novel, to understand the human condition. The Athenians were one of the first to study international relations and he was the founder of the ‘realist school’ which has been very important in understanding diplomacy and politics to this day. He was also one of the founders of political science because of his analysis of the Peloponnesian War and his thesis on the causes of war and conflict, the ‘Thucydides trap’ is still relevant in the 21st century.