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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?
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.
Sep 24, 2015 · The Thucydides Trap: Are the U.S. and China Headed for War? In 12 of 16 past cases in which a rising power has confronted a ruling power, the result has been bloodshed. By Graham Allison
Thucydides ( / θ ( j) uːˈsɪdɪˌdiːz /, thew-SID-ih-deez; Ancient Greek: Θουκυδίδης, romanized : Thoukudídēs [tʰuːkydǐdɛːs]; c. 460 – c. 400 BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC.
Jun 9, 2017 · But as China challenges America’s predominance, misunderstandings about each other’s actions and intentions could lead them into a deadly trap first identified by the ancient Greek historian ...
Understanding the Thucydides Trap. Thucydides, the ancient Greek historian, chronicled the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. He famously observed, “What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.”
The Thucydides’s Trap Case File (below) presents summaries of all sixteen cases, which are featured in Graham Allison's new book Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap? Using the cases, Allison illustrates how tension between rising and ruling powers has often led to war—while also showing how war was avoided in ...
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.
Graham Tillett Allison Jr. (born March 23, 1940) is an American political scientist and the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is known for his contributions in the late 1960s and early 1970s to the bureaucratic analysis of decision making, especially during times of crisis.
