Thucydides the Ancient Greek Classic Historian, teaches us what needs to be done, and provides simple explanation

In 416 BC. a powerful army from Athens, the superpower of the day, appeared on the small and neutral island of Milos in the Aegean Archipelagos of Greece. The Athenians told the islanders to submit and pay taxes or be eliminated. Surprised, the Milos people appealed to morality, justice, law, even the Gods. There was a misunderstanding, the Athenians replied: You simply have the choice between doing as we say or be destroyed, so please do not waste our time. That is not fair, insisted the Milos.

Thus, the Athenians "buried all the old men and sold the women and children for slaves, and then sent settlers and settled their land."

It sounds very familiar in our days with all the so called Syrian refugees who are sent by Turkey to Greece and EU in hundreds of thousands if not millions melted with Afghans, Iranians, Pakistanis, Somalis and many north African Muslims who actually are the 80-90 % of the total number. The Strategic plan is to conquer Greece and EU later by sending people in need “lives to be protected by humanitarian so called laws, UN NGOs etc. but created by authoritarian regimes like Turkey”

This is called the law of the strong or else realistic law neglecting the International Laws. This is exactly what Mr. Erdogan is doing in many theaters like, Cyprus, Greece, Refugees, Libya. Being called as the most dangerous leader even by Israel.

 With this thought, perhaps the simplest in world literature, the Ancient Greek historian Thucydides, whom writings are taught to all War Colleges concludes the dialogue on the "History of the Peloponnesian War" with the summary. (the dialogue is shortened here). Full text is a classic in international relations - and a good guide to understanding our world today.

"The Milions Dialogue with the Athenians is one of the most dramatic episodes of the Peloponnesian War and is narrated in the 5th book of Thucydides' History. This dialogue has remained in history as the antithesis of law over power.

The incident happened in 416 BC. The Athenians attacked Milos, a small, Lacedaemon colony, in order to force it to join the Athenian Alliance. The Milos demanded that their right to remain neutral in the Athenian conflict with Sparta should be respected. Finally, the Athenians, taking advantage of their enormous military superiority, occupy Milos, execute all adult men, and stop women and children from settling on the island of Athenian settlers.

Most likely, Thucydides's position on this point is intended to present his own version of the change of the Athenian Alliance to hegemony and ultimately to tyranny. It is very reminiscent of the dramatic poetry style of Abris 'Nemesis'. Ticis for the Athenians came a little later with their destruction in Sicily ?

This is because it was the first expression of two traditions that have ever passed through world politics. The Athenian culture described by Thucydides is called realism. He views the world as a scene organized only by power and interest. Power does it right.

The Milos approach is called idealism. This tradition has not always been as weak as the apples. It has evolved over time in the sense of international law, as it was later incorporated, for example, in the United Nations and the European Union. Here the rules are supposed to overpower - or at least moderate - the power to protect the weak from the powerful for the benefit of all.

The Western world after World War II was largely shaped by an architecture that the Miles would admire. One main reason was that it was led by a superpower, the US, which was realistic in military readiness but idealistic in vision and values. The UN meant legalizing and resolving non-war conflicts. Other institutions, from the International Monetary Fund to the forerunner of today's World Trade Organization, have signaled that there were rules to limit naked power in world affairs.

No one embraced this Milions mentality more impatiently than the Europeans injured by the war, and especially the Germans, who had just recently committed genocide, which the Athenians could not imagine. From a rhetorical point of view, the Germans have completely rejected their cruel power and self-interest, which is one reason why they continue to despise and degrade their own army.

For more than a decade after the end of the Cold War, idealism seemed to be the future. Some writers celebrated the "end of history" as the liberal international order prevailed. Many were particularly excited about the EU, the pinnacle of legitimacy and transnational multilateralism, predicting that "Europe will run in the 21st century", that "the European way is the best hope" and that the EU would become "the new superpower."

What is happening, on the contrary, is a sharp shift away from idealism and back to realism. Some ancient but modern countries, such as post-Soviet Russia, post-Ottoman Turkey and post-imperial China, have. at different times, as they feel rejected or humiliated by the West and its idealistic dogma. New upstarts (China) or recent strong ones (Russia and Turkey) are now top brokers.

When the Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded in Georgia on 2008 and then annexed Crimea in 2014, he did it with the same mentality as the Athenians to Milons, without to care that he was acting against the international law. There was no one to stop him.

When Erdogan gets the EEZ of Cyprus and drills inside for gas/oil it is against the International Law but again no one stops him. The same with the EEZ of Greece and the illegal MOU with Libya where against International Law and existing embargo sends troops and weapons saying that historically Libya was under the Ottoman Empire.

 The same with Northern Syria where he displaced the Kurds from their cities and brings over his jihadists troops and tries to annex a part of the land against the International Law, but who cares. He creates millions of displaced refugees, to present himself as a humanitarian, black mail for billions of USD and also use them as human missiles to black mail Greece and EU, he does all these against the International Law, but again he is not stopped. Even now that he systematically pushes those refugees through Greece to destabilize and conquer parts of the country, no one stops him again. 

It is with the same dark realism that Chinese President Xi Jinping sees his neighborhood. Where he can support his force and escape, he will take - for example, some islands in the South China Sea to convert them into Chinese aircraft carriers. Wherever he calculates that his power is not yet enough or may cause an (even) higher power such as the US, he waits, as in Taiwan.

We do not know how Thucydides personally felt about the incident in Milos. It just describes and interprets it. Realism may indeed be the default state in nature. But the world is more tolerant when those in power also have ideals.

Unfortunately, Europe seems to be destined not only for values but without power. In the meantime, the US seems to have temporarily lost interest in the ideals, that used to have, and has in a way abandoned the Middle East and Mediterranean to other players like Russia and Turkey. That could change again now, that we openly see that Turkey has gone too far away in its “realistic law by strength, against the international law and our interests and partners and allies in the region”.

Because the US is still the only nation today that has potential and ideals, and this can prevent a world in which, as the Athenians told the Millions, "the powerful do what they can and the weak suffer what they need".

Admiral Peter Kikareas

World Foundation For Peace and Security

Hellenic Aspis & Associates Inc.

Founder & President

https://www.hellasp.com