ABSTRACT
World politics reel with hegemony. Mainstream analysts typically cite Thucydides’ line as warrant: “The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must.” Relations in world politics thus fall into two distinct categories: the (strong) Self sets “the rules of the game” for the (weak) Other to play. Should compliance fail to ensue, or worse, should outright violation occur, the Self must discipline the Other. “The Athenians killed all the men and enslaved all the women and children” – so ends the chapter on Melos in the History. Realists and liberals use these few lines to justify our contemporary world politics under the neoliberal imperium. Some push “soft power” (Nye 2004) to sweeten the promises of prosperity and equality in a “capitalist peace” (Gartzke 2007). Still, the fundamental stricture of Self vs Other remains.
