YACOOB ABBA OMAR: Global power rivalry could end cordially if Thucydides Trap is dodged
Violent conflict can be sidestepped if the alternative of a Kindleberger Trap plays itself out
Given the ever-widening impact of the war in Ukraine in the context of the China-US rivalry, there has been much speculation whether we are entering a period marked by a “Thucydides Trap” or the “Kindleberger Trap”.
The first term is derived from the observations of Thucydides, an Athenian historian and general, whose History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the circa 400BCE war between the established Sparta and the rising Athens. Thucydides identified the causes of the war between the two ancient states, concluding that despite the long list of possible triggers, “the growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm that this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable”...
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