Thucydides and Just War: How to Begin to Read Walzers Just and Unjust Wars

Thucydides is usually considered a realist thinker who denies a meaningful place to right or justice in international relations. In Just and Unjust Wars, however, Michael Walzer develops a powerful critique of realism through an engagement with Thucydides. This article compares Walzers treatment with Leo Strausss anti-realist interpretation of Thucydides, suggesting many similarities between Walzers approach and Strausss. Both Walzer and Strauss hold that, even in war, necessity does not eliminate meaningful margins of moral choice. Strausss much more expansive treatment of Thucydides helps us appreciate the subtleties of Walzers terse argument against realists.