Philippines: A new ‘middle power’?

A new dawn: For the first time in recent memory, the Philippiness can be called an emerging economy to reckon with. — Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN

THE strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must,” lamented ancient Greek historian Thucydides after observing the tragic fate of smaller city-states at the hands of Athenian and Spartan armies. Over the next two millennia, countless self-styled “realists” invoked Thucydides’ memorable lines to justify a full range of imperialist enterprises, which reduced much of humanity to, at best, bystanders, and at worst, pawns in great power rivalries.

More subtle thinkers, however, would know Thucydides wasn’t the only major thinker in the ancient era, even among Greeks.