Thuküdidész és a politikai realizmus
Thucydides and Political Realism

Summary/Abstract: The article investigates the relationship between the work of Thucydides and political realism understood as polit ical theor y (not as the theor y of I R). By addressing some general problems in reading Thucydides, I argue that the conventional reading of the Melian Dialogue (i.e. as the justification of the thesis “might makes right”) is untenable. However, if we ask the question con cerning the relationship between Thucydides and political realism differently, a “moderate realist” reading seems plausible, meaning that Thucydides’s work is an example of realism, but not in the sense of conventional interpretation. To un- derpin this thesis, at the end of the article I try to elaborate some linkages between The Peloponnesian War and contemporary realist political theory.

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