Quickening temporal processes—downward-sloping spirals—are becoming increasingly characteristic of the political twists and turns in established democracies. These tempos are emotionally engaging and contagious. They can signify complications and entanglements and open up possibilities of regressive slides. The classical conceptualization refers to the possibility that domestic regression can link up with external surroundings and draw in its major actors, thereby escalating the hostilities between them. For Thucydides, the circumstances of war were one “grand movement”—kinesis megiste. This chapter develops a regression scale model based on the Thucydidean understanding, which aims to understand how healthy states can become entangled in regressive external influences stemming from states that are further down the regression scale.
The Thucydidean Brink