GVPT200 Blog Post #1

 Saria Rudolph

Constructivism, Liberalism and Realism in The Melian Dialogues

The Melian Dialogues” does a great job of how the three “theories”, Liberalism, Constructivism and Realism are connected during the process that states go through when deciding whether to fight or stay out of an issue. Two of the main themes that are stressed to explain how these “theories” come together are the power of honor, and one’s state’s security.

Honor is a very important factor in the Melians’ decision making process and it actually gets to the point that the Athenians reminds him, “Remember what is usually the best course…Since you put your interest in place of justice, our view must be that it is in your interest not to subvert this rule that is good for all.” This statement supports the liberalist idea that states as well as individuals act in their own self-interest when making such decisions (Shirks, Liberalism lecture slide 12). As a leader not letting your own interest get in the way of making the decision that is in your state’s best interest.

                The Athenians were trying to persuade the Melians to just surrender and become part of their empire by reminding the representative that as leader there’s many factors that need to be taken into account when making such a drastic decision. The main two being which decision will benefit the Melians more and always keeping your state’s interests in mind and doing so in a rational manner.

When the Athenians were speaking to the Melians, “we’ll take it as we found it and leave it to posterity forever, because we know that you would do the same if you had our power, and so would anyone else.” The motivation for making the decision they made is to earn them more power and anyone else would make the same move if they were in the same place. This points back to the idea of no state necessarily being safe because they don’t always know another nation’s intentions, and no nation is truly safe unless they have all the power because of the zero sum plus idea, even if you are more powerful if another state has power that’s less power for you and therefore is indeed a threat to you because they can be developing whether at a rapid rate or gradual rate. Therefore, the Athenians represent realism.

Athenians seems to represent constructivism through his dialogue especially at the end of the article, “It seems to us…..they have already come to pass.” Constructivism because they believe that stability shouldn’t necessarily be assumed even if it is true that one state has more power than the other, while the Melains are overconfident about their having more power which shows they are more on the Realist/ Liberalist side of the political spectrum. This one decision ultimately led to the Melians doom.

                Therefore when making a decision that risks a national security although these theories have many differences in the end they can all come together and result in more efficient, well-thought out decision making.

Sources:

Thucydides, “The Melian Dialogues” from The History of the Peloponnesian War (ELMS)