David P wrote
Rod Speed wrote
David P wrote

QUORA: Was WWI avoidable?

by David Lipman, former 1st Cavalry Division (1983-1987)

Just another ignorant yank.

Answered Oct 22, 2018
The fact that the Great War was avoidable is one of that wars
many tragedies. When dealing with jealous, competetive, and
powerful nation states, a deft diplomacy is mandatory. But wise
diplomacy was gone from Germany, the young and foolish Kaiser
dismissed the masterful Bismark. It took a diplomat of Bismarks
skill to balance the jealous rivals Germanies nationhood had
created. With his ouster, the diplomacy of Germany became erratic.

The real problem was that they didnt realise that that
conflict could turn into anything like a 4 year world war.
They expected that it would just be another local war
like the european wars before that.

"Bismarck wanted no colonies and a small fleet. Kaiser Wilhelm II
demanded an Empire and an all powerful fleet."

Thats a trivial part of the question about whether WW1 was avoidable.

WW1 wasnt about the lack of skilful diplomacy and Bismarck
had his share of full scale war, tho not a world war.

A decision based on self, at the expense of the common good.

Sure, but thats a separate issue to whether WW1 was avoidable.
To a large extent it wasnt, because the allegiances were already
in place and once the stupid posturing that happened after
Ferdinand got assassinated got going, there was a real sense
in which full scale war was inevitable and the development
of full industrial war made a world war inevitable.

Just like with Vietnam,, once it gets going, it becomes
unstoppable until one side or the other loses.

The purpose of regular attendance at recovery meetings (A.A.,
N.A., etc.) is to see more & more clearly how decisions based
on self, at the expense of the common good (also known as
"selfishness gone wild", "an undisciplined craving for more",
? & "self-will run riot"), are the cause of trouble & conflict.

That isnt why the UK got involved. Or France either for that matter.

These kinds of decisions, also made by numerous members of the
? political class worldwide, throughout history, are well-documented.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_opportunism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_warfare

Thats a separate issue to whether WW1 could have been avoided.

The only one I would add here is the decision to extend life
spans as much as possible, by preventing communicable
diseases. (The common good includes other creatures,
future generations, and the environment.)

Again, absolutely NOTHING to do with whether WW1 could have been avoided.