The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must,' lamented Greek historian Thucydides after observing the tragic fate of smaller city-states at the hands of Athenian and Spartan armies. Over the next two millennia, countless self-styled 'realists' invoked Thucydides' memorable lines in order to justify a full range of imperialist enterprises, which reduced much of humanity to, at best, bystanders, and, at worst, pawns in great power rivalries. More subtle thinkers, however, would know Thucydides wasn't the only major thinker in the ancient era, even among Greeks.
https://opinion.inquirer.net/166072/philippines-a-new-middle-power#inquirer