05/14/2026
The newsrooms are scrambling right now to explain the “Thucydides’s Trap” reference used by Chinese President Xi a few hours ago. Helper: The phrase comes from the ancient Greek historian *Thucydides who explained the Peloponnesian War this way:
“The rise of Athens and the fear that this caused in Sparta made war inevitable.”
*Pronounced:
thoo-SID-ih-deez
Breakdown:
Thoo — like “through” without the “r”
SID — stressed syllable
ih — short, unstressed
deez — like “these” with a d