By John Helmer, Moscow
  @bears_with

Imperialism in the mind happens when a superiority complex turns into a national pathology of racial supremacism and is carved into stone tablets as the constitution of the Chosen People, Make American Great Again, the Final Solution, etc. It always comes a cropper.

Almost two and half thousand years ago, the expanding Athenian empire at war with the resisting Sparta tried to convince the neutral islanders of Melos to surrender and survive, or face their total destruction. The negotiation of this choice between the two sides has been retold in just thirty-two paragraphs of Thucydides’ History of Peloponnesian War.

This is best remembered in the Athenian advice to the Melians to be realistic about their chances. “You know as well as we do that when these matters are discussed by practical people, the standard of justice depends on the quality of power to compel, and that in fact the strong do what they can and the weak accept what they must.” Because the Melians refused to submit, what followed was genocide – the Athens killed every adult male and enslaved the women and children.

There are several less well-known paragraphs in which the Athenians justified their life-or-death offer, and the genocide to come. “We rule the sea,” the Athenians said, “and you are islanders, and weaker islanders too than the others; it is therefore particularly important that you should not escape.” This is genocide for its exemplary effect – not to limit resistance to imperial power on the part of the weak but instead to remove all hope in the endurance of the weak by destroying hope and life together.  

“If one already has solid advantages to fall back upon, one can indulge in hope. It may do harm but will not destroy one. But hope is by nature an expensive commodity and those who are risking all on one cast find out only what it means only when they are already ruined.” Genocide is meant to extinguish all hope by extinguishing all life. The Final Solution, as the Germans called it.

When Indian strategists advised Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the Israeli destruction of the Palestinians is an operational necessity for the Indian ambition to trade north and westwards  through the India Middle East Europe Corridor (IMEC), they have been trapping themselves. They are mistaking the operational necessity for economic growth with a strategy of destroying all their enemies, so that no hope of resistance can survive.

But empires don’t destroy hope of resistance. Imperialists who believe so have always been  defeated. The Athenian genocide on Melos was reversed within eleven years. The German genocide of the Jews was reversed within four, at the establishment of the Israeli state. In another 75 years the Jews were inflicting genocide on the Palestinians. The Indians, who have survived to reverse several British genocides, are now being persuaded by their prime minister, his advisers and financiers to believe that genocide can be worked to their advantage, big and small – that Gautam Adani’s investment in the port of Haifa, for example, will be more profitable if Gaza is forever Jewish; also, Anil Ambani’s investment in Rafael Advanced Defence Systems.

View and listen to the podcast with Nima Alkhorshid recorded on Tuesday afternoon, Moscow time.  

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHhJt1nNhZk

Here are maps to illustrate the discussion of the global reach in planning – also in competition – by India, Russia, Iran, and China.

INDIA-UAE-ISRAEL-GREECE

INDIA, IRAN, RUSSIA

RUSSIA-CHINA

CHINA’S BELT-AND-ROAD INITIATIVE

For the Melian Dialogue in the context of Thucydides’ full history, in a  2003 translation, click to read Book Five, Chapter XVII.

by Editor - Tuesday, February 24th, 2026