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====Thucydides and the realist school of international relations====
Among the key themes of the History of the Peloponnesian War are Empire, war, and power. Thucydides had a bleak view of human nature and this influenced his view of international relations. For him, the strong will always prey on the weaker weak and seek to dominate them. This is illustrated in the destruction of Melos by Athens in the History of the Peloponnesian War. In his famous Melian dialogue, the former general sets out a view of international relations as one which is anarchic and which is not governed by any sense of justice .<ref>Thucydides, 5, 84-116</ref>. Thucydides is widely seen as the father of the realist school of international affairs. This privileged military power, national interests and the state. It holds He argued that religion and morality have no place in politics and that relations between states. Instead, is characterized as everyone was always trying to further one’s their own interests at the expense of others, as . This view was shaped by the case among Peloponnesian War because the city-states during did this throughout the Peloponnesian Warconflict. Thucydides was pessimistic about human nature and did not believe that societies could change. Any society that was not prepared for war and to further their own interests will not survive or prosper. This His views influenced among others writers and thinkers such as Machiavelli, Hobbes , and Rousseau. It later developed in In the 19th century , it developed into the school of thought that promoted the idea that states should be powerful and seek to dominate others in their own interests. It has been enormously influential in politics and diplomacy and remains so to this day .<ref>Forde, Steven. "International realism and the science of politics: Thucydides, Machiavelli, and neorealism." International Studies Quarterly 39, no. 2 (1995): 141-160</ref>.
====Thucydides trap====
He was the first to really propose a theory of war, which he believed was a result of the interaction of human nature, national interests, and chance events. The former general’s thesis in the History of the Peloponnesian War is that the war between Sparta and Athens was inevitable. The disgraced general believed that when a rising power such as Athens comes into contact with an established power such as Sparta that conflict is inevitable. In the words of Thucydides ‘It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable’ <ref> Thucydides, I, 22</ref>. It is inevitable that the rising power will seek to displace the existing power and this is because humans want to dominate the weaker. This has become known as the Thucydides trap, which roughly is the proposition that when a new power emerges that it is inevitable that there is going to be a war. It should be noted that it was not Thucydides who named this concept, but it was rather named after him, by academics in the twentieth century. This concept based on Thucydides' thesis on the origins of the Peloponnesian War has been enormously influential among politicians and diplomats.
