An Argument Against the First Image Political Realist in the Literary Example of Thucydides in The Peloponnesian War
This international relations study will define the three images of war as theorized by Kenneth waltz to argue against the first image political realism of Thucydides in the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides was a general in the Athenian army that did not feel that a single leader or tyrant caused the war in the first image model, but in the clash of burgeoning nation states, such as Athens and Sparta, that reflects an anarchic global war scenario. More so, the individual role of states in Waltz’s second image provides a more powerful example of the aggression and desire of Sparta to become the dominant region in the Mediterranean. …show more content…
In the mode of Waltz 's (1959) “first image” theory of war, the individualistic motives of a singular leader define the power of tyrannical institutions to create war: “The locus of the important causes of war is found in the nature and behavior of man…Wars result fro selfishness, from misdirected aggressive impulses, from stupidity (Waltz, “Man, the State, and War”, 16). In this context, the development of the conflict between Sparta and Athens originated through the conflict between warring states, which sought to maximize their economic objectives by forcefully gaining access to resources and territory: “Various, too, were the obstacles which the national growth encountered in various localities” (Thucydides Ch.1, para.15). In this “national” or city state conflict, the historical progress of Greek city-states was continually competing for economic and political sovereignty over smaller city-states that due to the problem of tyrannical or despotic government: "But at last a time came when the tyrants of Athens and the far older tyrannies of the rest of Hellas were, with the exception of those in Sicily, once and for all put down" (Ch.1, para.17). these are important features of the Peloponnesian War, which define the lack of “human behavior” as part of the causal factors of this conflict in Greek civilization.. More so, Thucydides was not prone to domestic city-state conflicts that created the war due to the necessity of expanding economic and military power in the
This international relations study will define the three images of war as theorized by Kenneth waltz to argue against the first image political realism of Thucydides in the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides was a general in the Athenian army that did not feel that a single leader or tyrant caused the war in the first image model, but in the clash of burgeoning nation states, such as Athens and Sparta, that reflects an anarchic global war scenario. More so, the individual role of states in Waltz’s second image provides a more powerful example of the aggression and desire of Sparta to become the dominant region in the Mediterranean. …show more content…
In the mode of Waltz 's (1959) “first image” theory of war, the individualistic motives of a singular leader define the power of tyrannical institutions to create war: “The locus of the important causes of war is found in the nature and behavior of man…Wars result fro selfishness, from misdirected aggressive impulses, from stupidity (Waltz, “Man, the State, and War”, 16). In this context, the development of the conflict between Sparta and Athens originated through the conflict between warring states, which sought to maximize their economic objectives by forcefully gaining access to resources and territory: “Various, too, were the obstacles which the national growth encountered in various localities” (Thucydides Ch.1, para.15). In this “national” or city state conflict, the historical progress of Greek city-states was continually competing for economic and political sovereignty over smaller city-states that due to the problem of tyrannical or despotic government: "But at last a time came when the tyrants of Athens and the far older tyrannies of the rest of Hellas were, with the exception of those in Sicily, once and for all put down" (Ch.1, para.17). these are important features of the Peloponnesian War, which define the lack of “human behavior” as part of the causal factors of this conflict in Greek civilization.. More so, Thucydides was not prone to domestic city-state conflicts that created the war due to the necessity of expanding economic and military power in the