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The Thucydides Trap, or Thucydides' Trap, is a term popularized by American political scientist Graham T. Allison to describe an apparent tendency towards war when an emerging power threatens to displace an existing great power as a regional or international hegemon.
Escaping Thucydides’s Trap is not just a theoretical possibility. In four of the 16 cases, including three from the 20th century, imaginative statecraft averted war. Can Washington and Beijing steer their ships of state through today’s treacherous shoals?
Jun 9, 2017 · The Thucydides Trap. When one great power threatens to displace another, war is almost always the result — but it doesn’t have to be. By Graham Allison, a professor of government at the Harvard...
Apr 4, 2024 · Central to Allison's work is the concept of the "Thucydides Trap," a term he coined in his book, Destined for War. It refers to the precarious situation when an ascending power threatens to displace an established one—a situation that historically has often led to war.
This article delves into the Thucydides Trap, its implications for contemporary international politics, and its relevance in shaping strategic thinking. Understanding the Thucydides Trap. Thucydides, the ancient Greek historian, chronicled the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta.
Jun 13, 2024 · Scholars of Thucydides, the ancient historian of the conflict, have dwelt on two different explanations of the causes of the War. First, the “Thucydides’ Trap”, which argues that Sparta’s fear of the growing power of Athens rendered peace arrangements non-credible and made war inevitable.
May 7, 2024 · This section identifies three such sites of disagreement among RFT scholars—concept formation, unit of analysis and causal mechanism (s)—and shows how the Thucydides trap obscures the theoretical diversity of the RFT tradition prior to Allison's intervention.
CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES ARE HEADING TOWARD A WAR NEITHER WANTS. The reason is Thucydides's Trap, a deadly pattern of structural stress that results when a rising power challenges a ruling one. This phenomenon is as old as history itself.
Sep 24, 2015 · The defining question about global order for this generation is whether China and the United States can escape Thucydides’s Trap. The Greek historian’s metaphor reminds us of the attendant dangers when a rising power rivals a ruling power—as Athens challenged Sparta in ancient Greece, or as Germany did Britain a century ago.
Sep 26, 2023 · In my book, Destined for War, I coined the term “Thucydides Trap” to make vivid an insight from the ancient Greek historian. When a rising power like China threatens to displace a ruling power like the United States, the typical outcome is war.
