IP NOTES 9/19

Athens, Sparta are a prototype of what happens over and over and over again
-1st athens v sparta
-carthage v rome
-britain v france/germany
-usa v csa
-us v germany
-us v ussr
-all follow the same structure
-commercial/liberal/maritime vs agricultural/authoritarian/land power
-up through rome, authoritarian wins, but afterwards, the LIBERAL society wins

Sparta
sparta is a garrison state
-at the age of 6, males are taken from their family and put into barracks until 30, to prepare for war
-there were no distinctive spartan individuals
-individual initiative was subordinate to the greater good
-why?
-spartans were the first to innovate and produce the hoplite, premier greek warrior
-they immediately went and conquered fertile messina
-they forced the helots to work and till the land for them, made them serfs
-helots outnumbered spartans 10 to 1
-this makes spartans extremely afraid that the helots would revolt
-spartans emphasize stability and tradition, to minimize their problems with the helots, etc
-when athens threatens Megara, spartans see this as a threat to them directly (because it cuts off a trade route)
-sparta has no treasury, coinage, walls, or fleet
-all it's got is basically a massive army

Athens
first democracy extremely liberal
-actually pretty close to a direct democracy
-people actually vote on policy
-juries, high positions were determined by LOT
-they'd actually choose their government at random
-they also had ostracism
-they'd vote every few years or so
-if you won the vote, you got exiled for ten years
-this is to protect against tyranny
-generals were the only officers chosen by election
-funeral oration of pericles is basically the only systematic defense of democracy in the classical world
-Athens is actually tolerant of individual variance
-democracy may not be the most efficient way of doing things, but its essential for the human spirit (liberality)
-fosters prosperity (material goods!)
-greek society is cosmopolitan
-optimism (about human nature)- we follow laws because we reason that its a good thing, not because of blind tradition
-justifies hegemony ("our city is the educator of helots")
-those who are subordinate to athens are actually benefited by athens
-war happens because of fundamentally different regime structures
-democracy vs authoritarianism

2nd image theory
-sparta is losing power, while athens is gaining
-basically, because athens will eventually surpass sparta, the time for war is while sparta is still stronger than athens
-this argument basically assumes that sparta and athens are the only two powers in the region
-however, persian empire is a huge factor here, indeed helps to end the war
-it's not actually athens v sparta, its actually delian league v peloponnesian league
-athens + allies v sparta + allies
-because the leagues are not monolithic, smaller states' foreign policy can drag much bigger states into war
-this can be seen again- cuban missile crisis

Civil War
-war isn't actually spartans v athenians
-it's actually a greek civil war- democrats v oligarchs
-this transfers to the present, too
-WWII- worldwide civil war between facism and liberal democracy
-cold war- worldwide civil war between socialism/communism and liberal democracy
-yay democracy

Interaction and war: perception and process
Historical analogies
-huge inaccuracies in analogies
-best seen in athenian invasion of sicily
-proponents of sicilian invasion say that sicilians will be like ionians- divided
-completely wrong, invasion was a disaster
-same type of claims (faulty historical analogies) even made today ('things are like another WWII!)
Foreign policy decisionmaking
-different people making foreign policy decisions for personal gain (always bad)
-athenian foreign policy is volatile (change their mind over and over again)
Accidents
-"fog of war" comes about from this war
-longer the war lasts, the more accidents will determine the outcome
-example
-there are walls around athens, so spartans can't get in
-this means that everybody from outside has to get into the walls
-they bring plague with them
-oops
Fear
-rational or irrational- the whole war is based on fear

Morality and Power
-"the strong do what they want, and the weak do what they must"
-pure power politics
-why does athens lose?
-internal strife
-pure power politics take over AT HOME
-leads to factionalization
-koine greek