My Take | Nato is the real Thucydides’ trap for the vassal states of Europe

As the United States is taking Europe to a new cold war in Asia via Nato, it’s time to ask what the military alliance is really about. History and money offer some guidance.

Thucydides comes to mind when US pundits and politicians bang on about how most member states of Nato fail to meet their supposed obligation to pay up. The 2 per cent benchmark of their GDP on defence is usually cited. The subtext is that the US has been picking up the slack for Europe’s security. Out of charity and compassion?

A similar controversy may be found in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. As translated by Thomas Hobbes, when the Delian League – the Nato of ancient Greece – was formed, “the first tribute that was taxed came to 460 talents [talenta]”.

The tribute was the initial payment collected from all the member states to launch the league. Scholars have been arguing ever since whether the sum cited by Thucydides was accurate or was only a benchmark.

Some argue the Greek word phoros for tribute might have included payment in kind, such as the provision of ships, materials and manpower. Others, like Hobbes, believe that Thucydides meant only payment in money.

Whatever the real sum, most if not all specialists agree that it was on the high side. How high? A talent was a unit of weight, usually used to measure silver and gold. But it also had a monetary equivalent, which was around 6,000 drachmae, the Greek currency. An average Athenian soldier was paid one drachma a day.