It Was Ever Thus

Russia's recent invasion of Georgia, not to mention the US's invasion of Iraq, brought to mind the story of Melos, a story almost 2,500 years old. Commonly known as the Melian Dialogue, it appears in Chapter 17 of Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War" and it is probably the first written work of realist international policy.

The Athenians arrive on the island of Melos, a colony of Sparta (Thucydides uses the term Lacedaemon). Sparta was Athens' opponent in the great struggle for hegemony over ancient Greece that Thucydides chronicles. Being a colony of Sparta and on an island, it became a target for subjugation by the Athenians, the masters of the ancient Aegean sea (in the text the "Cretan Sea").

The dialogue takes place between the delegates from overwhelming Athenian army which has arrived on their shores and the ruling council of Melos. The Melians appeal to their right as an independent polis to remain neutral. The Melians wish only to abide by the rules right and equity between states. The Athenians were not persuaded. "You know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."

Further, the Athenians worry about the security of their empire if they allow the Melians to live unsubjugated. "[I]f any [island city] maintain their independence it is because they are strong, and that if we do not molest them it is because we are afraid; so that besides extending our empire we should gain in security by your subjection; the fact that you are islanders and weaker than others rendering it all the more important that you should not succeed in baffling the masters of the sea."

The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must, and if we let you defy us we will look weak. How different is this from what we see today?