The Primacy of Premodern History

Abstract

The study of premodern history would greatly improve our under- standing of current and future strategic challenges. Premodern international relations, in fact, have certain characteristics that are reappearing in our times. I underline three such features: the presence of non-state actors, the pursuit of nonmaterial objectives, and the difficulty of diplomacy and deterrence. As a result, in- ternational relations were often characterized by conflicts “below the military horizon,” timeless violent confrontations rather than wars. The paper concludes with an analysis of current trends that are bringing back some of these premodern traits and suggests sev- eral hypotheses for further research.

Keywords: ancient history, security studies, non-state actors, deterrence, diplomacy