The Conversation: What is the ‘Thucydides trap’ Xi warned Trump about? Lessons from an ancient war between Athens and Sparta (opens in new tab)

Grafissimo/Getty David M. Pritchard, The University of Queensland During their high-stakes meeting in Beijing this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly asked US President Donald Trump if the two countries could overcome the “Thucydides trap”. This phrase, popularised by contemporary US political scientist Graham Allison in the early 2010s, is used to describe how two […]