Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Number 2 | Page 109

and social life in the US: exposure to different perspectives, and not just policy positions, but also the emotional, human impact of policy decisions. Theater brought the decisions taken by the Athenian voting elite—and their consequences—to life before the eyes of the decision-makers. What better way to govern than with a clear sense of the human consequences of political decisions? In today’s divided world, politics desperately need more humanization. A first step might be to supplement the “might makes right” Melian Dialogue with Euripides’s The Trojan Women in the introductory international relations curriculum. Instead of encouraging future foreign policy leaders to dominate at all costs, why not urge them to consider the human consequences of their actions, and to empathize with the victims of previous “victories.” In the US, theater specifically and the arts generally tend to inhabit a different sphere from politics and foreign policy. The Athenians understood that the empathic experience of having diverse perspectives, including those of the victims of their actions, played out before them was essential to a healthy democracy. We could learn a lesson from them, and integrate empathy, as experienced through theater and the arts into policymaking. To get started, we might put down our phones, get off social media, and go to the theater. References Bosworth, A. B. (����) The Humanitarian Aspect of the Melian Dialogue. The Journal of Hellenic Studies ���: ��–��. Fox News. (����) Protestors storm ‘Julius Caesar’ performance again. Fox News. (Accessed � July ����) Marks, Peter. (����) Denied visas, Syrian refugees still get a platform. The Washington Post, September ��. Maxwell, Dominic. (����) Theatre: Queens of Syria, Young Vic, SE�. The Times, July �. Meineck, Peter. (����) Theotocracy. New York, NY: Routledge. 108