By: Jason Hanson

Jason Hanson — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 19:50:37 +0000

I have been thinking about this very good post for several weeks, and wanted to share my doubts that Thucydides is squarely in the foreign policy ‘realist’ camp for two reasons. First, Thucydides presents many examples of people doing extraordinary, brave and perhaps foolish things for ‘liberty’. While the Melian fight against Athens maybe the high watermark of foolishness, in almost every battle at least one side was fighting to preserve or obtain liberty. Thucydides does indicate that the quest for liberty is a universal desire. Second, Thucydides treats favourably generals with large strategic vision. The Spartan Brasidas is the best example. He understood that the source of Athenian power was the money it extracted from the allies. Brasidas’s strategy was to peel the allies away from Athens thereby turning off the money supply that funded the Athenian navy. The strategy of democratizing the mid-east on the theory that the source of the Islamofascist power is breeding ground of frustration and resentment in these oppressive regimes: if they become democratic, the swamp is drained. That strategy might be wrong or there might be better ones (turning off the oil money supply, for example), but at least it’s a strategy and without a strategy, the US is left with mere tactical engagements, often the firing of drones which-let’s stipulate-kill enemy soldiers, but does nothing on a broader strategic level to undermine the enemy’s ability to wage war.

By: Peter Lawler

Peter Lawler — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:08:23 +0000

I think Kristol could help any Republican on the culture/character front, about worrying more about the real effects of program on character and less about their unconstitutionality. And the return to realism in foreign policy is surely a kind mean between the extremes of “freedom agenda” and libertarian isolationism.

Comments on: Irving Kristol’s Neoconservative Ideas

By: Jason Hanson

By: Peter Lawler