and I will explore the moral complexities of regimes – like ancient Athens – which seek to promote the values and structures of liberal democracy in sovereign states by a process of invasion and military occupation.
PERICLES - “Our form of government does not enter into rivalry with the institutions of others. We do not copy our neighbours, but are an example to them. It is true that we are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few
BUSH - Because we believe in human dignity, peaceful nations must stand for the advance of democracy. No other system of government has done more to protect minorities, to secure the rights of labor, to raise the status of women, or to channel human energy to the pursuits of peace
PERICLES- Because of the greatness of our city the fruits of the whole earth flow in upon us; so that we enjoy the goods of other countries as freely as of our own.
With countless toils, conspicuous struggles, and glorious perils, the Athenians made Greece free, while making their own city surpassingly great. They commanded the sea for seventy years and saved the allies from civil strife, not suffering the many to be slaves of the few but compelling all to live on in equality.”
BUSH - Delegates to the General Assembly, we have been more than patient. We’ve tried sanctions. We’ve tried the carrot of oil for food, and the stick of coalition military strikes. The United States helped found the United Nations. We want the United Nations to be effective, and respectful, and successful. We want the resolutions of the world’s most important multilateral body to be enforced.
We will work with the U.N. Security Council for the necessary resolutions. But the purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced—the just demands of peace and security will be met—or action will be unavoidable.
PERICLES - “We deserve our empire because we placed the largest fleet and an unflinching patriotism at the service of the Greeks…… If we are now here in Sicily, it is equally in the interests of our security, with which we perceive that your interest also coincides… fear makes us come now, with the help of our friends, to settle matters here in Sicily for our own security, and not to enslave you but rather to prevent you from being enslaved.”
Two years later Pericles himself – as recorded in Thucydides – was admitting that there may have been moral arguments against imperialism and foreign adventures but, like Howard and Bush, he argued that it was important not to “cut and run”
I will argue that it is possible to identify a common thread linking ancient Athenian leaders (and their apologists) to current American policy-makers (and their apologists). This thread is a proposition that the security of the metropolitan power depends upon enforcing the existence of democracy among ostensibly sovereign weaker states. Underlying this belief is the doctrine of “Democratic Peace” fashionable among current International relations theorists – democracies don’t go to war with each other, so the best defence for any democracy is to make sure everyone else becomes democratic.
Tags: bush, delian_league, democracy, foreign_policy, history, iraq, pericle
