the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must

English

Alternative forms

• the strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must

Etymology

Calque of Ancient Greek δυνατὰ δὲ οἱ προύχοντες πράσσουσι καὶ οἱ ἀσθενεῖς ξυγχωροῦσιν (dunatà dè hoi proúkhontes prássousi kaì hoi astheneîs xunkhōroûsin) in Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War 5.89 (the Melian dialogue). Thucydides presents the sentence as part of an ultimatum from Athens to the city of Melos demanding tribute. The Melians having rejected the order, their city was taken by force and their population enslaved and massacred by the Athenians. The wording that has become standard is from Richard Crawley’s 1874 translation.

Proverb

the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must

1. (chiefly international relations) The weak cannot resist the decisions of the strong; power, not morality, decides the outcome of any dispute.
   • 1924 November, Arthur W. Wheen, “Two Masters”, in The London Mercury, volume 11, number 61, page 35:

     Bitter is the necessity of it. It knows no law. In the world the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.

   • 1970, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Radhakrishnan: Selected Writings on Philosophy, Religion and Culture, →ISBN, page 48:

     But the present organisation of society, national and international, works on the principle that the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.

   • 1972, Lester B. Pearson, Memoirs, 1897–1948: Through Diplomacy to Politics, →ISBN, page 283:

     I felt then, as I do now, that the growth of the United Nations into a truly effective world organization was our best, perhaps our last, hope of bringing about enduring and creative peace if mankind was to end a savage tradition that the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.

   • 2000, Jack Donnelly, Realism in International Relations, →ISBN, page 101:

     But for the weak, power – the power of others – is largely a source of inequality and subordination. The strong do what they can. The weak suffer what they must, including hierarchic subordination.

   • 2006, Mohammed Ayoob, Matthew Zierler, “The unipolar concert: Unipolarity and multilateralism in the age of globalization”, in Ramesh Thakur, Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu, editors, The Iraq Crisis and the World Order: Structural, Institutional and Normative Challenges, →ISBN, pages 52–3:

     The unilateral actions on the part of the United States, as in Iraq, threaten not so much the integrity of the Concert as the foundational norms of international society, such as sovereignty and non-intervention, which had provided the basis for that society in the first place. If this trend continues, we may end up with a hyper-realist world in which “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”.

   • 2021, Paul D’Anieri, International Politics: Power and Purpose in Global Affairs, 5th edition, →ISBN, pages 90, 92:

     The overall argument is that powerful states and wealthy capitalists use what power they have to gain even more power. They save the lucrative parts of the production process for themselves, and force weaker actors into the parts that yield relatively little reward. ¶ In this respect, economic structuralism fully agrees with the realist statement that “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”.

See also

• history is written by the victors
• might makes right
• vae victis