Thucydides and the Huainanzi: enduring images of ancient statecraft

Abstract

As the international system becomes increasingly multi-polar in the 21st century, International Relations will have to address the issue of how states with different values and traditions to the West might practice statecraft. Orthodox explanations of state behaviour in the form of Realism and Liberalism have offered limited analytical attention to understanding the underlying differences in political values which states might have. This thesis compares two images of ancient statecraft, the History oj the Peloponnesian War and the Huainanzi. The comparative content of this work is a fresh approach which has only recently received interest amongst International Relations scholars and is a fertile field for future research. Not only have these two texts been highly influential in leaving enduring legacies for political theory in Ancient Greece and Ancient China they also offer a glimpse into what the practice of statecraft might look like in the future. This work will compare the two images of statecraft and position them in relation to contemporary approaches to statecraft. The implications are twofold. First, a direct comparison promises to shed insight into enduring features of statecraft that remain relevant both now and in the foreseeable future. Second, they highlight alternative paradigms of approaching the practice of statecraft from two thinkers in different intellectual and cultural traditions. These two paradigms are then compared to suggest that the International Relations in the 21st century will need greater consideration for theoretical plurality and synthesis to remain relevant to the contemporary needs of statecraft.