THUCYDIDES AND BREXIT: PARALLELS AND FUNCTIONAL PRINCIPLES

When the majority of UK citizens voted to exit the EU almost nobody could tell the main impact of the most important event in global politics in the beginning of the 21st century. Two years after the referendum none is sure what exactly Brexit means, especially on the relationship the UK will have with EU in the future. The UK invoked the Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and until 1 January 2021 there will be a transition period which is necessary for both parts to prepare and strike their own new trade deals. What lessons can a modern political thought learn from antiquity? According to Thucydides, the inventor of political science, and theorist of political and financial autonomy, there might be a new set of ways of thinking and values, for both UK’s major political parties. Through his political view of the cultural and institutional explanation of the democratic Athenian paradigm we could find some of the fundamentals of the first known democracy in the world and transfer them to our times. How could an observer conceive the risks and the opportunities of the future UK role after Brexit putting Thucydides’ theory into praxis? What is the relationship between modern UK politics decisions with the strategies of Pericles, Cleon, and Alcibiades, during the Peloponnesian War? Article visualizations: