Thucydides and Internal War

Abstract

In this 2001 book Jonathan Price attempts to demonstrate that Thucydides consciously viewed and presented the Peloponnesian War in terms of a condition of civil strife - stasis, in Greek. Thucydides defines stasis as a set of symptoms indicating an internal disturbance in both individuals and states. This diagnostic method, in contrast to all other approaches in antiquity, allows an observer to identify stasis even when the combatants do not or cannot openly acknowledge the nature of their conflict. The words and actions which Thucydides chooses for his narrative meet his criteria for stasis: the speeches in the History represent the breakdown of language and communication characteristic of internal conflict, and the zeal for victory led to acts of unusual brutality and cruelty, and overall disregard for genuinely Hellenic customs, codes of morality and civic loyalty. Viewing the Peloponnesian War as a destructive internal war had profound consequences for Thucydides' historical vision.

Thucydides’ Three Security Dilemmas in Post-Soviet Strife1

“…6 For a comparative security analysis, see Arbatov et al (1997); a useful ethno-political perspective is developed in Tishkov (1997); a fascinating sociological picture is presented by Derluguian (2005). 7 Strictly speaking, nor was it 'Peloponnesian' (since Sparta controlled only a part of the Peloponnesus, which saw few hostilities), but rather pan-Hellenic, Aegean or simply Greek; on its character as civil war, see Price (2001). 8 It reads indeed like a thoughtful reflection on the turmoil in the Caucasus in 1991 Á93: 'The sufferings which revolution entailed upon the cities were many and terrible, such as have occurred and always will occur, as long as the nature of mankind remains the same, though in a severe or milder form, and varying in their symptoms, according to the variety of particular cases'.…”

Anti-Capital for the XXIst Century (on the metacrisis of capitalism and the prospects for radical politics)

“…5 This intermediary state of agitation would be akin to an organism being in a state of a low fever or persistent anxiety -which is indeed how our societies find themselves a decade after the financial collapse of 2007-2009: the energies of the initial experience of social crisis have been dissipated, yet society has not recovered its sense of normalcy, of stable well-being. It is beset by chronic inflammation; it is in stasis -a term with which Thucydides depicted the pervasive civil strife that blocked the normal flow of democratic politics in the Greek polis (Price 2001).…”

El concepto jurídico de la revolución

“…Todos estos enunciados sobre la revolución de Corcira se encuentran plenos de supuestos que hay que traer a la luz y que representan diversos puntos de vista desde los cuales se puede comprender el fenómeno de las revoluciones (cfr. PRICE, 2001). Esto no implica que las causas de una revolución o sus efectos puedan determinarse jurídicamente, pues esa es la tarea de otras disciplinas distintas de la jurisprudencia, como la sociología, la historia, la economía, la antropología, etc.…”