Hans Beck, Between Demarcation and Integration: The Context of Foreign Policy in Ancient Greece (original) (raw)

Interstate alliances in the fourth-century BCE Greek world: A socio-cultural perspective

2016

This dissertation offers a reassessment of interstate alliances (συµµαχία) in the fourth-century BCE Greek world from a socio-cultural perspective. Although there are a number of studies of ancient and modern alliances that approach the topic from a politico-military perspective, this is the first to apply a socio-cultural perspective to classical Greek alliances. By considering the subject in its own context, from the primary literary and epigraphic sources rather than modern theoretical models, this study aims to identify how contemporaries understood and represented their collaborative activities with other poleis. This approach leads to insights that challenge the widespread notion that classical Greek alliances were temporary affiliations designed for nothing more than political and military objectives. On the contrary, even though alliances materialized within the context of warfare, they were reifications of the ideational, cultural, religious, and economic interactions between individuals in each polis. The overall endeavor, therefore, can be considered a socio-cultural history of Greek alliances in the fourth century BCE. Part I shows how the practice of constructing an interstate alliance was a social activity that grew out of historical interactions on the interpersonal level. It also examines the constitutive element behind the legislative and religious activities in alliance negotiations, which strengthened old ties and developed new ones in a common cause and towards a common identity. Part II reviews the principal Athenian, Spartan, and Theban bilateral alliances of the fourth century BCE. It emphasizes their distinct alliance experiences and practices, while also noting the prevalent importance of socio-cultural factors for their success or failure. Part III reexamines the end of alliances and offers an alternative interpretation of that phase based upon contemporary perceptions. It also highlights the innovative and important contributions which this project offers to the wider academic community. Although this study seeks out contemporary perceptions, its conclusions engage with the current debates in history, classics, and international relations studies. v uxori filiaeque meis vi Acknowledgements Above all, I would like to thank my family, without whom I would not have started or finished my graduate studies. My wife, from whom I have been away for far too long, encouraged me to pursue an academic career and has given me moral support all along the way. Your love, Asawa ko, has carried me along this far and I know will continue to do so for many years to come. My daughter, the joy of my life, gave me a reason to bring my studies to completion. Thank you, little bean, for believing that daddy is not very far away-he is just inside the computer whenever you want to see him. My mother instilled in me from an early age a love of learning through her instruction in homeschool and field trips to historical sites across the United States. You are, inter alia, a word processing whiz, Mom, and I could never have completed my writing projects without your help. My grandparents were a constant source of happiness growing up, instilling in me a sanguine outlook that sustained me through the hardest moments of graduate school. Grandma, you showed me how to approach life as a game. Grandpa, you showed me how to approach life as a joke-I am still playing and laughing. I consider myself fortunate to have a stellar dissertation committee. When I first saw Dr. Jennifer Roberts, my adviser, on the History Channel years ago, I had no idea I would someday write my dissertation under her supervision. She has overseen my research for many years now, from my first project on international alliances in Herodotus to this current project. While providing valuable guidance, her continual affirmation has also given me the confidence to pursue my own direction in research. She has also been nothing but supportive of my professional pursuits, writing countless letters of recommendation on my behalf and arranging imaginations of those studying ancient Greek IR. Piero Treves and Robin Seager, for example, make great use of BOP in their respective publications. 15 The concept saturates Frank E. Adcock and D. J. Mosley's Diplomacy in Ancient Greece, as reflected in the following excerpt. "The defensive treaties which were signed by Athens and Corcyra in 433 and by Athens and Boeotia in 395, whilst they mentioned no specific enemy, were conceived specifically to counter the activities of Corinth and Sparta respectively and so could not be expected to persist. The great Athenian naval alliances of the fifth and fourth centuries were, in origin, specifically directed against Persia and Sparta respectively; they were not conceived between friends as alliances which were to cover a variety of contingencies, although Athens sought in practice to take advantage of the alliances for other purposes." 16 This passage echoes the Realist insistence that alliances are products of unifying threats and therefore negative agreements-as in Liska's famous remark that "alliances are against, and only derivatively for, someone or something." 17 Likewise, in two articles devoted specifically to classical Greek alliances, the historian Barry Strauss argues that, except in very few cases, the Greeks routinely entered into alliances to maintain BOP: "On any reading, the vast majority of poleis which sought allies did so for the purpose of balancing. In case after case, the sources state that polis A sought an alliance with polis B to protect it against the threat of polis C." 18 Similar assessments can be found throughout the works of Philip Harding ("balance-of-power politics was Athens' preferred method of dealing with the Greek states on the mainland"), Arthur Eckstein (alliances are results of "shifting and complex balances of power between ferociously independent polities"), Peter Hunt ("balance-of-power considerations often required shifts of

The Imitation Game: Interstate Alliances and the Failure of Theban Hegemony in Greece

Journal of Ancient History, 2017

Soon after their victory over the Spartans at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE, the Thebans asserted their claim to Panhellenic leadership, but that hege-monic experiment turned out to be a brief affair in classical Greek history. It is the purpose of this paper to explain this failure by comparing the Theban approach to interstate relations with that of the earlier and more successful Athenian and Spartan models. The first section reexamines those hegemonic precedents and their supporting alliances (συμμαχίαι) which served both military and social functions. The next section looks closely at the attempt of the Thebans, under the leadership of Epaminondas and Pelopidas, to extend their own political and military power through the construction of seven alliances or groups of alliances from 370 to 364 BCE. Although the Thebans' alliance treaties were designed according to conventional principles and provisions, their alliance network proved incapable of sustaining their Panhellenic aspirations. The final section seeks out answers to why the Thebans failed where others had previously succeeded. Whereas modern scholarship points to institutional and structural deficiencies or personal hatreds, this paper adds a further reason: that the Thebans neglected to cultivate interpersonal ties with their new allies that could transcend the temporary objectives and inspire the parties to continue their relationship in the long term. Consequently, the alliances, and thus the whole Theban hegemonic experiment, collapsed within only a short time of their inception. How to gain (or regain) a position of international leadership and the role that international alliances and alignments play in facilitating that endeavor are once again popular subjects among foreign policy experts as well as in public discourse. Such topics were also prevalent in Greece during the first half of the fourth

Hellenic Statecraft and the Geopolitics of Difference

2021

This book explores competing definitions of Hellenism in the making of the Greek state by drawing on critical historical and geopolitical perspectives and their intersection with difference and exclusion. It examines Greece's central role in shaping the state system, regional security, and nationalisms of the Balkans, the Black Sea, and the Eastern Mediterranean regions. Understanding the Greek state's social constitution reveals its past and present intentions and strategies as well as local, national, and European notions of security and identity. The book looks at the relation of subaltern communities to state power and the state's ability and willingness to negotiate difference. It also explores how the State's identity politics shaped regional geopolitics in the past two centuries. Chapters present case studies that shed light on the Hellenization of Jewish Thessaloniki, the Treaty of Lausanne's making of Western Thrace's Muslim minority, the role and modes of settlement, urbanization, and 'bordering-as-statecraft' in Eastern Macedonia and Western Thrace, and the politics of erecting the Athens Mosque, the first officially-licensed mosque outside Western Thrace since Greek Independence. With examples from fieldwork in Greek cities and borderlands, this book offers a wealth of primary research from geographers and historians on the modern history of Greek statecraft and nationcraft. It will be of key interest to scholars and students of political geography, international relations, and European history.

Greeks & Barbarians: The Genesis of Hellenic International Thought

The ancient Hellenic world was composed of more sovereign states than the contemporary one. Aristotle alone studied the constitutions of over150 city-states or poleis. As such it was a microcosm of a sociocultural system which existed within the Mediterranean geopolitical environment, much the same as the European society now exists within its global context. It would therefore be instructive to know how the Greeks saw themselves in relation to other nations. Such holistic perspective gives an idea of the origins of classical international affairs theory. This article, part of a larger study of classical world theory, concentrates on the central aspect of Greek Weltanschauung that divided humanity into Greeks and Barbarians. It is our thesis here that this primordial dichotomy served as the foundation of Hellenic international ideology. Moreover, we contend that such distinctions always color human reason and still persist in modern times. Although the analogy should not be carried too far, there are definite parallels between the classical and present worlds which the reader will recognize and appreciate. In order to give the flavor of the times, this article is based on the world shaking events up to the Fifth century BC and the impact they had upon the great Greek thinkers of that era. The trauma of this critical period dominated international thought for almost two centuries until the final demise of the inter-state system. Nevertheless, during that period of upheaval, some progressive thinkers also developed the notion of a common humanity. Their cosmopolitan ideals therefore influenced international thinking through the millennia. Subsequently published as a chapter in the author's Exopolitics (NOVA, NY 2005) and its Greek translation Exopolitika (LEADER BOOKS< Athens, 2000-1)

Greek Foreign Policy and the Middle East: From Possibility to Fulfillment?

The topic of this article is the historical evolution of Greek foreign policy in the Middle East over the past thirty-five years. It essentially seeks to explain the broad framework of conditions and objectives within which Greek foreign policy has been made towards the Arab Middle East and Israel. It argues that the amount of involvement of Greek foreign policy in the area was relatively little. Though much has changed in Greece's approach towards the Middle East since the 1990s, there is also a significant continuity of attitude, in the sense that serious attention has not been paid to this part of the world.

Athenian Geopolitics: trading low phoroi for favorable state relations

2017

This dissertation examines the relationship between Athens and smaller member states of the Delian League. Former studies explained the apparatus of the Delian League by solely focusing on the relationship between Athens and the league’s most powerful subject allies. They have therefore fallen short in recreating a comprehensive picture of the geopolitical realities in the Aegean of the fifth century B.C. Much of the evidence regarding Athenian conduct toward her subject allies can be found in epigraphy. By closely analyzing the tribute lists, it becomes clear that certain smaller states, contributed conspicuously low phoroi into the Delian treasury. This work sets out to discover whether the strategic properties of these poleis led to their deliberate ‘under-assessment’. By carefully looking at the evidence, the study seeks to demonstrate the potential benefits which Athens could count on by deliberately under-assessing certain member states. This dissertation will show that a revision of the workings of the Delian League is necessary and can be achieved by primarily examining poleis that so far have been insufficiently studied. This new approach will give rise to the question whether the longevity of Athenian imperialism was based on a pragmatic and clever policy which up until now has been unexplored.

Diplomacy and Foreign Relations during the Greek War of Independence 1821 - 1830

2021

This essay aims to present the historical background and timeline of one of Europe’s most vital revolutions, the Greek War of Independence, as well as focusing on foreign relations and further diplomatic practices that took place between Europe’s most powerful states. Primarily, the shifting of opinions between the Great Powers that resulted in conflicts, led interests and military backing all played a vital part in this ordeal. Moreover, this essay will showcase how public opinion and later diplomacy affected the actions of said powers and helped orchestrate the results leading to the creation of an autonomous and independent Greek State. I just wish to note that the timing of the topic of this essay is quite meaningful and symbolic for my person, as this year (2021) marks the 200 years of the beginning of the Greek Revolution, therefore I hope this work serves as a small benchmark for further study of this significant event of the 19th century.