#theory of international politics | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 1 year

Text

DeSantis administration aims to ‘curb’ diversity, equity, inclusion in state universities

BY DIVYA KUMAR

Florida will be looking to “curb” diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the state’s colleges and universities, Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez said Tuesday, offering a preview of what higher education leaders can expect from lawmakers during the upcoming legislative session.

Her statements, delivered at a state Board of Governors meeting at Florida International University in Miami, marked the first time the DeSantis administration has explained why its budget office this month requested a detailed accounting of how much colleges and universities spend on such efforts.

“I can give you a few insights as to what we’re working on coming this session,” Nuñez said before mentioning a statement last week from the presidents of Florida’s 28 state colleges. It pledged to root out any policy or practice that “compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts.” The lieutenant governor then suggested that effort would soon extend to the state’s 12 universities.

“I believe [the colleges are] looking at ways to curb those initiatives, and I think we’ll look at ways to more broadly curb those initiatives as well,” she said.

In a speech that earlier praised the university system for its high rankings and relatively low student debt, Nuñez said “real forces” were “undermining the good work taking place” at the state schools.

“These new threats that are creeping and taking hold are things that we need to face,” she said. “I believe one of the biggest threats that’s infiltrating our universities is a permeating culture — one might call it woke culture, one might call it woke ideology, one might call it identity politics. ... We don’t need to get into all the names, but I do believe that some of these issues are taking hold. The policies they advocate are based on hate and based on indoctrination.”

Nuñez also previewed proposals to review general education courses and give university presidents more control over faculty hiring.

“We want to further empower our presidents to make sure that they own the responsibility of hiring individuals to work in their campuses and make sure it stays in the hands of the leader of the institution more so than in hidden hiring practices and faculty committees,” she said.

The legislative session begins March 7.

In their responses to the governor’s budget office, the 12 public universities said they collectively are spending about $34.5 million this year on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. About $20.7 million came from state funds.

The University of South Florida reported the highest expenses at $8.7 million, though only $2.5 million came from state funds. Money was spent on initiatives such the university’s supplier diversity program; non-mandatory trainings; a list of 10 courses including “Theatre Appreciation” and “Language in the USA”; and funding for its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Florida A&M University had the highest amount of state funds used at $4.1 million. The school’s expenses included a research center and museum for Black archives and its Center for Environmental Equity and Justice, created by the Legislature in 1998.

Shortly after those responses were submitted, the governor’s budget office sent out a second request requiring universities to report details on any procedures and treatments they had offered related to gender affirming care since 2018. The request did not specify how the information would be used.

39 notes · View notes

redshift-13 · 2 months

Text

tumblr book club, March 13, 2024

My recent-ish posts about the night aren't just an aesthetic exploration. I've been wanting to get a better handle on light pollution, a growing problem affecting astronomical research, human health, the climate, and wildlife.

Ah, libraries...

For those who prefer seeing lightning bugs in a field to the garish architectural lighting of McMansions in a new suburban sprawl, or staring in wonder at the Milky Way instead of an orbiting SpaceX billboard advertising Coca-Cola, preserving darkness is an urgent priority requiring much higher public awareness and political action.

When light pollution is too much, lovely rituals of deep evolutionary time like that below are rendered impossible:

Dark Sky International is the umbrella organization for a worldwide effort to conserve the night sky. There's a growing chapter in my state of Minnesota called Starry Skies North.

Dad still sends me birthday money, and I still spend it on books:

#books #light pollution #dark sky international #starry skies north #axel honneth #the frankfurt school #critical theory #philosophy #political economy #socialism

3 notes · View notes

definitely-not-the-kgb · 11 months

Text

It is long political post time, motherfucks

Today's heart attack:

Situationism

Now, I wouldn't be able to determine whether it is a leftwards radicalisation of the anti-consumerist right, if it is a counter-cultural movement to the consumer culture of the post-war economic boom, or if it is a rightwards degeneration of anti-capitalism to fit the Overton window of its time. In doubt, we'll use the prior under the assumption that a counter-cultural movement to consumerism existed before the economic boom and that Situationism is a byproduct of that movement.

So, for the sake of this post, Situationism is, in and of itself, a leftwards radicalisation of the anti-consumerist right in the specific ambits of art, advertisement, and commodity culture with a background of -at least partial- class consciousness.

With the definition out of the way, let's get to the juicy parts:

Situationism and philosophy

Situationism believes that Marx did not concentrate thoroughly enough on the philosophical aspects of capitalism, and -in a way- that may be considered correct, as Marx mainly addressed the practical incoherences and material failures of the capitalist system. Despite that, I would say such a material analysis is intrinsically philosophical.

Capitalism is not evil due to its inconsistencies or failures but for its design and consequences: Both factors are born of the liberal philosophy of the 18th century that gave birth to the concept of modern industrial capitalism. Capitalism is born of philosophy, and -consequently- any critique of capitalism is a critique of the liberal ideas and conception of liberty that moulded it.

I am not trying to say the Situationist analysis of the system of capital is incorrect, but that it is misguided in its interpretation of what capitalism ultimately is. And while the theory of isolation and fulfilment perpetrated by capitalism is correct, it falls entirely within the Marxist perspective of nature and is implicit in the belief that capitalism aims to bend the meaning of the word "humanity" for its goals.

"Situations"

Situations are, according to Situationist literature, "a moment of life concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organisation of a unitary ambience and a game of events.". In this, we can see the use of dialectical Marxism, as the term "Situation" then started meaning a more general merging of life with art, with the principal example of the Paris Commune as a "Revolutionary Moment".

The concept of Situations, in my eyes, is one of the few entirely good characteristics of Situationism, not necessarily from a political point of view, but a more human one: it allows us to perceive the "Revolutionary moments" not as "Failed Revolutions which the damn anarchists praise" or "Perfect examples of why my specific ideological current is perfect above all others", but as small steps that the leftist movement has historically taken that prove the theory of material conditions and from which we can learn as we wait for the next time those conditions fully develop.

Détournement and "Anti-Capitalism"

In addition to the worldview and theory of Situationism, one must logically analyse its praxis: A praxis funded on an individualistic and artistic approach to small-scale revolution, not to overthrow the system but to reject it. The use of capitalist tactics against the system of capital itself cannot destroy the system but can ridicule it, which is something we can see abundantly on the internet nowadays since even on the right, many people hold anti-corporatist, anti-consumerist, and anti-monopoly beliefs that they turn into Situationist protest through things like memes.

The "Anti-Capitalist" beliefs of the Situationist movement become, through the use of inefficient means of fight, ridicules and critiques that do not affect the system of capital but that make people more prone to understanding the system and its flaws: In this, Situationist praxis becomes not a way to overthrow the system of markets and spectacles, but a way to raise awareness of its incoherences and failures.

Arts and Politics

Another Situationist praxis is the rejection of non-political and bourgeois art and its usage for societal critique and analysis. What do I have to say other than this praxis is a little short of perfect? Arts should be the means people express concerns, ideals, and passions, and they should refer to politics and current events. This type of praxis naturally ties to what I previously stated regarding awareness and class consciousness.

"Work, leisure, and play" and Psychogeography

The concepts of "Work, leisure, and play" and Psychogeography are very similar in nature to the Philosophical critique of Marxism by Situationists, meaning that they are fundamentally Marxist concepts that have been restructured from a different perspective and misunderstood as products of Situationism.

The "Work, leisure, and play" concept is one of the most jarring contradictions of capitalism: it is the same concept Marx talked about concerning the dichotomy of profits and wages under the capitalist system.

Psychogeography can be seen not as a purely Marxist thought but as a shared view of the Communist Left and Centre: the National Ways to Communism. Psychogeography, as such, ends up being nothing more than the theory of the praxis of leftist view, turning into the study of what those ways could be for each psychogeographical group (the nations as defined by Stalin).

Conclusions

To sum up this analysis:

Situationism is a very interesting ideology that does a great deal to bring revolution in people's everyday lives, but its critique of Marxism suppresses its Marxist inspiration. The tendency of the Situationists to both take from Marxism and then criticise it until they express their equal thoughts as separate and unique brings the ideology to artificially moderate itself into protest and a refusal to comply rather than a shot to overthrow the system.

I am all for the revival of the Situationist movement, but -this time- it ought to be openly Marxist and instead of being inspired by it, it must be its direct extension into the arts and the lives of the people.

I'm sorry if it ended a bit more confusing than it began, but I'm tired and in a hurry now.

#communism #marxism #situationist international #situationism #council marxism #socialism #leftism #marxist feminism #marxist theory #analysis #politics

12 notes · View notes

canichangemyblogname · 4 months

Text

There are people out there telling people that the crux of South Africa’s case against Israel is the claim that Israel started bombing Gaza “out of the blue” and “without reason.” And I’m just sitting here like… “did you even watch their opening remarks?” The answer has to be no. Because I explicitly remember hearing South Africa acknowledge Oct. 7th. And I remember them saying that the scale of the violence and death and destruction is unacceptable as a response.

These people are also claiming that South Africa praised Hamas during their testimony and I just have no idea where they are getting this. Did someone tell you this and you’re just uncritically repeating it? Do you lack reading AND listening comprehension? Or is this a purposeful mischaracterization to spread misinformation? Because South Africa literally said that what Hamas did is unacceptable and that it constitutes war crimes, but they are not a state and not a party to the convention and thus they cannot bring case against them.

#You wanna try Hamas at The Hague?#You’ll have to give them legitimacy as a government and governing body #in a shocking turn of events that no one saw coming #Zionists begin arguing that Hamas should be given international recognition as a government #so they can argue *we’re* hypocrites for treating a state that incurs obligations internationally disparately from an NGTO #(non-governmental terrorist organization)#I declare that ‘horseshoe theory’ now refers to how ‘either side’ will argue whatever the fuck they want #no matter how ideologically inconsistent it is with previous statements #just to serve an expedient political gotcha #‘cuz what the fuck are y’all on #Hamas incurs no international obligations and bears no international responsibilities because it is not a sovereign government #that rules over a sovereign nation #but admitting that requires admitting that Palestinians live under a defacto one-state solution #and that Palestinians in Gaza have been subject to life in a ghetto under defacto Israeli military control

4 notes · View notes

elytrafemme · 8 months

Text

at the worst part of essay writing btw (not done putting in quotes or finishing the essay but already at word limit meaning regardless of what i write i am going to have to trim it down anyway aueuehghg)

#nightmare.personal #HARDEST ESSAY OF MY LIFE. HAS NO REASON BEING THIS DAMN DIFFICULT.#political theory my beloved (tho all my classmates hate it. understandably) but GOD is it hard to write about #and like. it's so fucking elusive i keep forgetting my points the second i make them #but tbh this is kind of a fucking myself over moment deciding to critique the most logistically sound international politics theory #like. if i could have poked holes in ANY of them why the HELL did i choose wendt and why did everyone make this exact same mistake #what is wrong with all of us #anyway i have to grind this out tomorrow bc i'm doing peer editing with a classmate and #i need. a draft for that. it's due at 5 pm tmrw btw.#Wish Me Luck!

2 notes · View notes

dearlittlefandom-stalker · 1 year

Text

If you could also maaaayybe specify your generation (boomer, gen X, millennial, gen Z, etc…) that would very much appreciated! I have a theory about that and I wanna see if I’m right (according to the results of this Very Official Poll, at least)

For the record I’m gen Z as well as an American and I believe that there were definitely some US government officials who were in on it and/or planned 9/11 and hired terrorists to do the dirty work for them. Because they had to have a reason to justify America going to war in the middle east and getting in on some of those opium fields and oil :D because that’s what lines their pockets— ahem. I mean. Bad terrorists >:(

6 notes · View notes

cithaerons · 11 months

Text

haunting to think how much worse i’d be if my personal interests and academic and professional drives coincided.........

#imagine if i had studied history and political theory instead of neuroscience and international relations....... HAUNTING

5 notes · View notes

subjects-of-the-king · 1 year

Text

The Concept of Government Legitimacy in Greek Antiquity and the Modern World

An original essay of Lucas Del Rio

Note: This piece of mine references both the modern and ancient worlds. Dates in antiquity will always have BC attached. If there is no BC attached, then the date can be presumed to be AD. All references to events in the modern world are solely for the purpose of historical analysis and are not intended to support any political agenda.

In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, a series of international conflicts, both with and without bloodshed, have arisen over the issue of the right of governments to rule their people. After the Second World War, a push occurred against colonialism, which at least in theory was because states were increasingly expected to have a right to constitutional sovereignty. Similar to Latin America in the nineteenth century, local peoples in Africa and Asia began to grow more nationalistic and demanded the right to have governments that answered to their own subjects rather than being the subjects themselves of imperial powers. This dream would be shattered, however, by the conflicting interests of the United States and the Soviet Union, who both had their own ideas of what a legitimate government meant. Now government legitimacy was no longer derived primarily from popular sovereignty, but rather from the two opposing systems of government and economic structure demanded by the rival superpowers. Consent from the people, as well as the right of a nation to rule itself, grew irrelevant as the former colonies became battlegrounds of political ideology through proxy war and coup d’etat regardless of what their citizens actually wanted. Even with the dissolution of the Soviet Union more than thirty years ago, the major powers of the world have far from ceased operating in this manner. Some countries, such as Somaliland in northern Somalia, have fully functioning governments without any international recognition of sovereignty. Others, such as the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China, both claim the title of legitimacy over the other and both enjoy the recognition of certain other governments. Further still, some nations may try to undermine the status of another internationally, such as how the United States uses sanctions on Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela.

One might assume that this recent history is only characteristic of the timeframe in which it occurred. With nationalism and the notion of universal human rights both being relatively new concepts, older history was indeed frequently dominated by empires, absolutism, and slavery. The idea that there was historically no consideration of government legitimacy could not be further from the truth, however. This topic has the potential to be studied in a myriad of times and places, but consider ancient Greece. Countless city-states were strewn across the country prior to the eventual finalization of the Roman conquest after the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC, and there was a lengthy political history in each of them before this annexation. Cities had different systems of governance, conquering cities installed puppet regimes in one another, and most importantly, there were standards for political legitimacy. In order to study the beginnings of the Greek political systems that would come to dominate her cities in the Classical (490 - 323 BC) and Hellenistic (323 - 30 BC) eras, the focus of research shall be on Athens in the Archaic Era (750 - 490 BC) and earlier.

The earliest surviving Hellenic writings that tell their history in an objective manner are the “Histories” of Herodotus. After spending as long as multiple decades traveling and writing about what was the known world to the Greeks in the fifth century BC, his finished text is arguably the best extant source on Archaic Greece, although little of it extends further back than the late seventh century BC. A crucial source for events before this is the “Chronicle” of Eusebius, a fourth century Christian scholar under Emperor Justinian the Great of the Byzantine Empire. In addition to more accepted facts, some of the contents of his “Chronicle” are clearly derived from legend, although folk tales can often help to decipher the history of a people. For this reason, the “Library” of Apollodorus the Grammarian, an Athenian scholar from the second century BC, is also useful. While the work had the explicit purpose of being a handbook to the ancient Greek beliefs about their deities, demigods, and other mythical figures, there is a great deal of purported information on the rulers of cities in the so-called heroic era, which when used with caution can allow it to serve as a sort of guide to Greece before it was chronicled by Herodotus and his successors. These three texts will therefore act as the main sources on the origins of Greek political structures.

The three better studied eras of ancient Greek history are preceded by the Aegean Bronze Age, a time period stretching from the first cities being founded on the archipelagos that surround the Greek mainland to the disappearance of the Mycenaean civilization, and the Greek Dark Ages, which last until official dates for Greek history are objectively established by the Olympic Games. As a side note, while historians generally simplify the dating by calling 750 BC the dawn of the Archaic Era, the first Olympiad was in 776 BC. In the Aegean Bronze Age, truly large cities emerged first on the island of Crete before being followed by those of the Mycenaeans on the mainland. Many historians have postulated that some later Greek legends were distant recollections of events in the Mycenaean era. This theory, one which deserves much greater study than it has received, is for the most part only applied to the Trojan War, although it has the potential to be used as a starting point for the study of the dawn of Greek politics. Greek legend, like those of many other cultures, had a flood myth in which Zeus attempted to wipe out the human race over anger about child sacrifice. Since the story of the Minotaur also involves child sacrifice of a sort, it seems very likely that the Greeks at one time may have had such a ritual practice. After all, the Greek hero Theseus, son of King Aegeus, overcame great odds against King Minos of Crete, interestingly the location where civilization had arisen first, when he slew his monster that had been living on the flesh of Athenian boys and girls.

If the Greeks truly did practice child sacrifice early on, then both of these stories appear to be a moral condemnation of it. In the case of the flood, it was Lycaon, King of Arcadia in the Peloponnese according to the Latin poet Ovid, who had sacrificed a boy to Zeus. Disgusted, the King of the gods of the Greeks was said to have executed the offending monarch with lightning before receiving the assistance of Poseidon and Triton to flood the world with the heaviest rains ever seen. No one would have a more legitimate claim to kingship than the one who ruled from Olympus, and he had the right to depose a much lesser leader for an obsolete, barbaric practice. To fulfill his goal, he requested help from other members of his family with their own realms. This would be followed by the suffering of many others. While Zeus and probably also Lycaon belong solely to myth, the story could represent child sacrifice surviving as a practice in the peripheral regions of Greece until the leaders of these areas were wiped out by their stronger foes. There is also the possibility that the child sacrifice is allegorical for a different practice of one or more kings, but it still demonstrates the mindset of the Greeks at the time. Given that King Minos also sacrificed children, however, it may be more than a mere allegory.

Contemporary international relations also involve countries that are more powerful and more favorably viewed looking at weak and isolated countries as both primitive and backwards, then using this mindset to justify military or other action. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Middle East, where the United States views Islamic countries, albeit selectively, as foes who refuse to adapt to the modern world. An especially long-running example is Iran, where the Islamic Revolution of 1979 left the country as an adversary of the United States. Iran is condemned by the United States for its theocratic system of governance, a system that the United States sees as illegitimate. More recently, they have accused the Iranians of developing nuclear weapons, which the United States views with suspicion. Of course, most people in the world would agree that theocracy is obsolete in the twenty-first century and that continued nuclear proliferation, regardless of the country obtaining the weapons, is dangerous for people everywhere, just as they would be horrified by child sacrifice. At the same time, many would disagree with the practice of heavy economic sanctions and repeated military threats, which they might view as illegitimate means of diplomacy in the twenty-first century.

The story of Theseus and the Minotaur, as previously asserted, is also essentially about child sacrifice. Unlike King Lycaon, however, it is King Minos who is the powerful ruler subjecting Athens to his will, demanding human sacrificial tribute in a manner similar to the Aztecs. Theseus in this case is playing the role of revolutionary against an old custom. As this tale involves Crete as the location of the greatest power, it is probably that it represents earlier events, when child sacrifice was the norm and still practiced by the most important kings. Here Minos, therefore, is the illegitimate ruler because of his oppressive actions which unjustly interfere in the affairs of another sovereign state. In a twist, Theseus was said by the Athenians to have initiated upon his return the most important political development in Greek history, and arguably, if there is any truth to it, the world. Plutarch, in his work “Parallel Lives” about the greatest of the Greeks and Romans, writes “he promised government without a king” where “he should only be commander in war and guardian of the laws, while in all else everyone should be on an equal footing.” This, according to Plutarch, was “a democracy.”

There is one last notable development to this story, however, and it is that at least some of the Greeks telling it did not view this decision by Theseus favorably, including Plutarch. “He saw that a large part of the people were corrupted” writes Plutarch, who also adds that they “wished to be cajoled into service instead of doing silently what they were told to do.” For many Greeks, the democracy that had been won by the Athenian hero after he freed the city from Cretan subjugation was not the most legitimate system of government, as much of the international community would agree today, but rather the least. Even in the twenty-first century, this story has great relevance. Some highly autocratic leaders, especially in Africa, still try to discredit the concept of democracy by pointing to the failures of democracies that are otherwise similar to their own states by pointing out the failure of these governments to bring down corruption, crime, disorder, poverty, and reliance on foreign powers. The Latin American strongmen, juntas, and one-party states in countries such as Chile, Argentina, and Mexico used similar arguments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and some would argue that the region has grown significantly more authoritarian in the last decade or so. Furthermore, like Theseus, leaders in modernity who attempt to initiate change by fighting imperial powers and establishing radical new systems of government are rarely successful. Communism is the most well-known example, although a similar issue can be seen in the African anticolonial revolutionaries of the 1960s, where newly democracy almost immediately collapsed in nearly every newly independent state and is yet to return to many. Unfortunately, both the terms “communist state” and “African state” have become heavily associated with tyranny, whether the generalization is fair or not.

Plutarch may provide a lengthy biography of Theseus, although Apollodorus discusses several other legendary Athenian kings, and Eusebius gives a simple yet thorough chronology. Apollodorus maintains that the different gods built cities that would be their respective site of worship, and the one built by Athena was Athens. Ogygus, according to Eusebius, was their first king, then “the Greeks relate that their great ancient flood happened in his reign” and “Attica remained without a king for 190 years.” There is no evidence, of course, that such a flood genuinely occurred, although the unknown event that mysteriously led to the crumbling of the Mycenaean civilization at the dawn of the Greek Dark Ages likely left governance in some parts of Greece in a state of limbo. It is therefore not unthinkable that central control in Athens could have broken down for almost two centuries, possibly with a multitude of warring factions all claiming the title of legitimate ruler while decrying the others as tyrants. “Tyrant” was a frequently used word in ancient Greece for a usurper of the government of a polis, especially one previously controlled by a “rightful” royal family and particularly in the Archaic Era. Its roots originate with the Lydian people of Asia Minor, whom Herodotus says were ruled by a dynasty descended from the Greek hero Heracles, better known today by his Latinized name Hercules, until they were overthrown by Gyges of the Mermnad dynasty. Using lengths of reign and other chronological dates provided by the celebrated Ionian historian, modern scholars have calculated the date of this seizure of power to have been 716 BC, or early in the Archaic Era of the neighboring land of the Greeks.

When the legitimacy of a regime is questioned in the modern world, the result can be the collapse of the central government. Oftentimes a military government ends up replacing a civilian one, or worse yet, central authority completely collapses into an ungovernable warlord state. Two Arab countries in North Africa are recent examples of the two situations. In 2011, the longtime dictators Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, in power since 1981, and Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya, in power since 1969, were both expelled from power after mass demonstrations erupted into widespread street violence. Both leaders suddenly received condemnation from the international community, with Mubarak choosing to step down while Qaddafi was killed after risking a civil war that he lost. Egypt was celebrated for holding her first free and fair elections, but there was once again anger from both world leaders and the local population with the newly elected Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. A coup d’etat followed in 2013 with a minimum of international condemnation, Morsi would die under suspicious circumstances in 2019, and the country is now led by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the military officer who deposed him. A far more dire situation has occurred in Libya, which quickly descended into a civil war with various opposing factions backed by several different foreign countries, including some of her African neighbors as well as the great powers of the world.

Tyranny was exceptionally common in the Greek Archaic Era before a transition towards more democracies and aristocracies as the Classical Era dawned. Herodotus writes heavily about the different tyrants, as his successor Thucydides does to a lesser extent. The author of the “History of the Peloponnesian War,” which chronicled the catastrophic violence between Athens and Sparta in the late fifth century BC, Thucydides is generally considered to have been the greatest historian of the Classical Era after Herodotus. Some modern scholars even prefer Thucydides as a writer because they feel his approach is less biased and that he more carefully vetted his sources. He writes that “the old form of government was hereditary monarchy with established rights and limitations” until “tyrannies were established in nearly all the cities.” Clearly Thucydides considers monarchy to be a more legitimate form of government. Today, military seizures of power are at the very least internationally condemned and often met with economic sanctions such as embargoes and asset freezes, showing that unconstitutional rule by juntas is now no longer seen as legitimate as it was during the Cold War and earlier. On the other hand, while the official international consensus is supposed to be that absolute monarchy is obsolete, powerful countries such as the United States continue to work closely with hereditary regimes such as Saudi Arabia. One reason given for the illegitimacy of military government is the squandering of economic resources, a sentiment shared by Thucydides when he says “for a long long the state of affairs everywhere in Hellas was such that nothing very remarkable could be done” and “cities were lacking in enterprise.”

According to Eusebius, following the reestablishment of monarchy in Athens by King Cecrops, who is also mentioned in the myths told by Apollodorus, the city was ruled by a series of seventeen kings. These kings, he says, belonged to the Erechtheid dynasty, who reigned for 450 years. As Athens transitioned from monarchy, the heads of government were the archons. The reason for this abandonment of monarchy by the Athenians is unclear, but there must have been forces in the city causing a different political system to be considered a more legitimate form of rule. Initially, the archons held power for life, and then his dates show that after 763 BC they began to be appointed for ten year terms. After 684 BC, these terms changed to one year. Just like in Athens, countries in the modern world grapple with the legitimacy of individual leaders based on the duration in which they are permitted to remain in power. Especially in the more peripheral states of the world, changes are frequently made to national constitutions regarding term limits and the length of individual terms. Herodotus mentions a series of tyrannies and attempted tyrannies in Athens that occurred prior to the democratic reforms that historians believe occurred in 508 BC.

A pivotal moment occurred in Greece, which foreshadowed a major aspect of modern geopolitics, as the Archaic Era was coming to a close. This was the first and second Persian invasion of Greece, which caused something to occur in the world that had never happened before. In these wars, the greatest imperial power of the world chose to use its massive army against a people who, more than had happened up until this point in history, were starting to develop a national identity. The Greeks did not wish to be subjects of the Persians. To the Greeks, despite their many scattered governments, only Greek rule over Greece was legitimate, and they therefore showed unity and strength to defend their sovereignty. During the eighteenth century, such a notion of nationalism spread across the globe. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it became commonplace for nationalist partisans to resist instances of foreign occupation. Since the Second World War, direct occupation of a different nation-state has grown increasingly difficult, as evidenced by the local responses in Afghanistan in 1979, Iraq in 2003, and Ukraine in 2022. Like the Greeks of the fifth century BC, the people of the modern world are increasingly valuing both democracy and their own sovereignty, and like the Classical Greeks, they have the potential for some of the greatest deeds in human history.

#history #ancient history #ancient greece #historical writing #historical analysis #greece #greek governments #geopolitics #international relations #political theory

6 notes · View notes