Rising Power, Fading Paths: Ancient Lessons for US-China Tensions
Xi Jinping raised the Thucydides trap in talks with Trump, a warning that a rising power could provoke conflict with an anxious incumbent; the article traces the term to Thucydides, notes scholarly pushback on its simplicity, and uses Athens–Sparta to show that fear can shape policy but history also offers options beyond war, such as accommodation or focusing on nearer regions to prevent conflict.