On Thucydides

As Bahrain, Libya, and Wisconsin burn, I’ve been in San Antonio for a Liberty Fund conference on “Strategy and Liberty in Thucydides Peloponnesian War”.   There are sixteen participants, sporting a reasonably diverse set of understandings of the relationship between the state and international politics.   The structure of the conference is quite interesting,  with a strong emphasis on participation during the sessions, and an emphasis on unstructured free time.  The point, I think, is to facilitate the development of professional relationships around Liberty Fund focused-themes. There’s an obvious downside to this; face-to-face interaction does not necessarily generate free and full discussion.  That said, I’ve never been particularly concerned about “legitimating” the operations of organizations like The Liberty Fund with my presence; my powers of legitimization are notably limited, and if I think I’ll get something interesting out of the event I’m happy to participate.  Also, an underlying theme of the conference has been the Liberty Fund’s desire to kill all participants with excessive food and drink.

The substance has been very interesting thus far, which is really the metric against which a conference should be measured.   I’ve been unevenly live-tweeting the proceedings, abiding by Chatham House rules.  Check it out if you’re interested.