Strategic rivalries and complex causality in 1914

doi:10.1017/CBO9781107336995.006

3 - Strategic rivalries and complex causality in 1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014

Karen Rasler and

William R. Thompson

Edited by

Jack S. Levy and

John A. Vasquez

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Karen Rasler: Affiliation:
Indiana University
William R. Thompson: Affiliation:
Indiana University
Jack S. Levy: Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
John A. Vasquez: Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

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Summary

It sometimes seems as if explaining the outbreak of war in 1914 is a holy grail for international relations specialists in war etiology. The First World War, of course, was not a minor event in the annals of international history and that helps to explain some of its allure. Its reputation as the war no one wanted also makes it something of a magnet for scholarly entrepreneurs. Explaining the inexplicable is always a worthy challenge. Moreover, the developments that transpired prior to the outbreak of war are sufficiently complicated that almost every model ever created in international relations seems to fit. Yet underlying the whole explanatory edifice is the early and continuing search for blame, its evasion, and its former implications for postwar reparations and war guilt. Which country was most responsible for bringing about the onset of the First World War? In addition, a disproportional number of the central research foci in international relations – security dilemmas, spiral dynamics, offensive–defensive arguments, crisis dynamics, alliances, arms races – stem to varying extents from interpretations of the onset of the First World War. If we get the outbreak of this “wrong” or have overlooked significant factors, we may be heading in the wrong direction in our search for general explanations of war causes.

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: The Outbreak of the First World War
Structure, Politics, and Decision-Making
, pp. 65 - 86

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107336995.006 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2014

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