Thucydides's Trap: Misunderstanding and Strategic Responses  

作　　者：Li Haibo Song Ruizhi 

机构地区：[1]the College of Marxism in South-Central University for Nationalities [2]the Institute of China’s Social Management of Beijing Normal University

出　　处：《Contemporary International Relations》2017年第6期106-125,共20页现代国际关系（英文版）

摘　　要：From a theoretical point of view, Thucydides' s Trap is the idea of realism, especially the idea of offensive realism, that changes in the international power structure will inevitably escalate to international conflict and war. As we analyze the historical origin of Thucydides' s Trap from the perspective of political strategy, we can see that Thucydides' s Trap was put forward by Graham T. Allison and other western scholars,and that their understanding and analogy between Athens and Sparta,between China and the United States mainly involves three aspects:strength determinism, war benefit theory and bilateral relations theory.These three misunderstandings involve objective factors, subjective factors, and the scope of Thucydides' s Trap. China should avoid falling into the theoretical trap of strength determinism, with great initiative to promote the sustainable development and the rise of China by adhering to the strategy of Chinese Economic Reform and Opening up, and to construct the community of common destiny, while controlling and managing a third-party factor emerging in the Sino-US bilateral relations.From a theoretical point of view, Thucydides＇s Trap is the idea of realism, especially the idea of offensive realism, that changes in the international power structure will inevitably escalate to international conflict and war. As we analyze the historical origin of Thucydides＇ s Trap from the perspective of political strategy, we can see that Thucydides＇s Trap was put forward by Graham T. Allison and other western scholars, and that their understanding and analogy between Athens and Sparta, between China and the United States mainly involves three aspects： strength determinism, war benefit theory and bilateral relations theory. These three misunderstandings involve objective factors, subjective factors, and the scope of Thucydides＇s Trap. China should avoid falling into the theoretical trap of strength determinism, with great initiative to promote the sustainable development and the rise of China by adhering to the strategy of Chinese Economic Reform and Opening up, and to construct the community of common destiny, while controlling and managing a third-party factor emerging in the Sino-US bilateral relations.

关 键 词：Thucydides＇s Trap strength political strategy REFORM a third-party factor 

分 类 号：D822.371.2[政治法律—政治学]