The Way into War

On the threshold of the 20th century, everlasting freedom seemed to be an attainable goal, if only one could “muster the efforts of all states.”¹ It was Russian Tsar Nicholas II who invited all the then-independent states of Europe, plus the United States and Japan, to an international conference in August 1898. He named two motives for a turnabout in international politics. The alliances secured two decades previously “have so far developed their military strength to an unknown extent, an…