Thucydides’ Theory of International Relations: A Lasting Possession. Edited by Lowell S. Gustafson. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000. 262p. $55.00 cloth, $24.95 paper

Robert C. Bartlett

American Political Science Review, 2001, vol. 95, issue 2, 465-465

Abstract: Too often edited volumes are a farrago of barely related essays that amount to the academic equivalent of the prover- bial camel: a horse built by committee. Lowell S. Gustafson is to be commended for compiling a coherent collection of essays that are united not only by their common conviction that Thucydides' great work does indeed possess a "theory of international relations" but also by their common desire to contrast this theory with current trends in the discipline. According to the contributors, Thucydides is not the father of "realism" or its variants because his understanding of inter- national politics is essentially moral: Every approach to international politics that studies power to the neglect of justice, necessity to the neglect of freedom, will prove to be an inadequate tool with which to understand the political deeds of human beings. However much we may be impinged upon by necessity, we remain fundamentally free, and how- ever much we may seek brute power, we nonetheless also strive to be just.

Date: 2001
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