Thucydides on Strategy

Which is the best treatis on stratefy The two obvious candidates would be Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” and Clausewitz’ “On War”. However, this book makes a convincing case for naming a third candidate: Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War”. Thucydides has been acclaimed as a great historian from time immemorial, and he has also been recently acknowledged as the father of the discipline of International Relations. Nevertheless, his merit as a strategic analyst has been unduly neglected. Thucydides on Strategy brings to light a wealth of strategic concepts contained in Thucydides’ text. Moreover, by examining recent cases like the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, it demonstrates the continued relevance of Thucydidean insights for the present (and future) analysis and planning of strategy at all levels.