トランプ米大統領が7年振りに中国を訪問し、習近平主席と会談しました。
会談の冒頭において習主席が言及した"Thucydides trap"という言葉が注目されています。
Thucydidesはギリシャの歴史家で、ペロポネソス戦争に関する著述で知られます。ペロポネソス戦争は前4世紀、ギリシャの覇権を巡ってスパルタとアテネが争った戦争であると世界史の教科書にも出てきます。台頭するアテネ、それを脅威に感じたスパルタ、その関係性が戦争の契機となったと言われており、これをアメリカの政治学者が米中関係になぞらえて、"Thucydides trap"（テュキディデスの罠）と言い始めたということです。
In his opening remarks to Trump at the bilateral meeting, Xi mentioned the Thucydides Trap.
It's a political term popularised by American scholar Graham Allison that has been used to describe the US-China relationship.
Referencing the ancient Greek historian Thucydides, who wrote about the war between Athens and Sparta, the term describes a situation where an established country becomes anxious about the rise of a developing power, leading to rivalry and eventually conflict.
In recent years the Chinese government has latched onto this analogy, with Xi himself invoking it when urging for co-operation with the US.
When Xi told Trump on this trip to "overcome the Thucydides Trap", he was essentially appealing to the US leader not to fear China's rise but instead, as he said later, become "partners not rivals", according to our Asia Digital Reporter Tessa Wong.
(Robert Greenall. What to know as Trump visits Xi in China. BBC News. May 14, 2026.)
経済、軍事力において台頭する中国、大国としての影響力も衰えが見られる米国、2国間の関係はアテネとスパルタに似ているという訳です。習氏は両国が"Thucydides trap"を乗り越えなければならないと発言、敵対するのではなくパートナーとしてありたいということのようです。
"Thucydides trap"という言葉が初めて使われたのは2012年だそうですから随分前の話ですね。
Coined by political scientist Graham Allison — first in a 2012 Financial Times article and later developed in his 2017 book “Destined for War” — the phrase refers to a line from the ancient Greek historian Thucydides, who wrote in his “History of the Peloponnesian War,” “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.”
(Andrew Latham. The Thucydides Trap: Vital lessons from ancient Greece for China and the US … or a load of old claptrap? The Conversation. April 15, 2025.)
