Thucydides: On Leadership (Pericles) 7/12/17

Pericles: Politician, statesman, diplomat, strategist, orator.* The seminal study on war, politics and strategy is the book by Thucydides on the Peloponnesian war, 431-404 BCE. It teaches: the civil military nexus, joint and combined operations and other valuable concepts. Thucydides also teaches about leadership using a case history approach throughout his history of the war. In the last two weeks we looked at Brasidas and Cleon who both died at the battle of Amphipolis. Perhaps the hero who most typifies the triumph and tragedy of Athens is Pericles. For over 30 years he dominated Athenian politics during Athens "golden age." Born from an aristocratic family he was a patron of Greek art and culture and perhaps his greatest achievement still stands today; the Parthenon. Though a noble he nevertheless helped move Athens toward a democratic form of government that still influences democracies today, including our own. Pericles saw Athens dominate the known world of his day as it became a great sea power; what Andrew Wilson of the Naval War College calls "a whale" (fast & dynamic but a limited land power). Thucydides implies that the real reason for the war, that would ultimately destroy Greek civilization, was the constant expansion of Athens power and influence and the fear that generated in Sparta. (Some international affairs wonks today refer to this as the "Thucydides Trap.") Pericles, who was a child when the Persians nearly destroyed Greece, never came to trust Sparta and took numerous actions to protect Athens from the Spartans (Wilson calls them an elephant -lumbering, slow but powerful). The action that triggered the Spartan invasion was the building of a "long wall" that protected Athens and allowed them to withstand any siege since they could be supplied by sea. Unfortunately for Athens this strategy protected them from Sparta but not the plague that killed over a third of the city population and sickened their leader Pericles. Ironically the democratic institutions that Pericles helped create worked against him as the people tried him in the courts for Athens' situation. Though later reinstated as leader, Pericles was a "broken man." Thucydides writes, "the mastermind of Athenian glory, died." It seems that Pericles greatest weakness was his hatred for his fellow Greeks, the Spartans. His lack of trust clouded his judgement and led to an inability to see a way he could allow for Athenian expansion without triggering suspicion in Sparta. This is the first of many times that Thucydides seems to ponder a key decision point where war, and the destruction of Athens, could have been avoided. ** Army Leadership Doctrine: Pericles example could be seen as an argument for various points of view in the decision making process. Pericles so dominated the assembly and Athenian strategy that his mental block became Athens tragedy. Decision makers today also need a variety of diverse thinkers to avoid group think and free COA development to seek out creative solutions to wicked problems. ADRP 6-22, 5-12 recommends diversity in Army teams and 7-15 suggests inclusiveness to help create a positive climate. *This reflection is based on my own personal reading of Thucydides, see The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War, Robert B. Strassler ed. or The Peloponnesian War: Oxford World's Classics, Rhodes and Hammon Trans., or The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan or The Great Courses, Masters of War: History's Greatest Strategic Thinkers by Andrew R. Wilson, lecture 2 and 3. ** For a religious thought consider the Apostle Paul's description of the Church as a "body" 1 Corinthians 12: 12-27. From a human and spiritual perspective (non-theistic) consider the concepts of unity found in the teaching of the Dali Lama including his book "The Universe in a Single Atom. I will be TDY to Carlisle for a couple of weeks but will look at King Archidamus when I return.