Greek Wisdom for the U.S. & China

As China's Xi Jinping and Barack Obama wrap up their first presidential summit in California, some ancient Greek wisdom is in the news. It is about a long war bet-ween Sparta and Athens that resulted in ruin for both some 2,500 years ago. In his History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides explained, "What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta." The striking parallel with American anxiety about a rising China has prompted commentators to call on the two leaders to avoid the "Thucydides trap" by engaging in dialogue.