Introduction: Thucydides after the post-cold war

Abstract

Fast forward almost two-and-a-half millennia: as this volume goes to press, Europe is the throes of the greatest challenge to its peace and stability since the Cold War. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its meddling in eastern and southern Ukraine has been accompanied by massive propaganda churned out by state-owned and Kremlin-friendly media. Little on the Russian side resembles Thucydides’ model: reporters pursue rumour instead of detail, laboriously misspeak the facts, and seldom offer different accounts of the same event.