Contributor

Jacob Powell

Graduate in BA International Relations and History from Swansea University, including one year as an exchange student at City University of Hong Kong. Current editor and writer for Tally Politics with interests in Asian politics, China relations, and the Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI).

Swansea University

Published in The Astyanax

• New this week · Politics · Essay

  “Thucydides’ Trap”: Decontextualising History to Justify IR Theory in US–China Relations

  The US–China debate rests on a selective reading of ancient Greek history. This essay unpicks the analogy at the heart of it.

  16 October 2026