Session 13 : What caused World War 1?

“The Cult of the Offensive and the Origins of the First World War” by Stephen Van Evera talks about the mindset in Europe in the years preceding the First World War, that Offense will always have the advantage over the Defense in any war. In fact the author states that such a mindset was one of the core reasons for the First World War to start and gives examples of Germany, France, England, Russia and Belgium having this thinking.

 Stephen Evera makes the argument that the World War was in fact a preventative war whose purpose was to ensure the future security of Central Powers, based on the ‘Offense being better than Defense’ argument. She argued that the Central Powers believed that if they did not attack at the right time, the other powers in Europe will crush them in the future.

This thinking which the author terms as “Cult of the Offensive” was the reason for the military buildups of the different European states and the later mobilizations of the French, German and Russian armies during the July Crisis. The author also accredits the Cult of the Offensive for the German decision to declare war on France and Russia simultaneously.

In all the instances above, the author makes a point that if defense dominated strategies were employed at that time, the behavior of the states involved would have been much different and the war, most likely, would have been avoided. This, he links with the tight alliances formed, which put the countries in the position of all or nothing. This resulted in not only causing the war, but helping it spread to the whole continent.However, I believe that some credit should have been given by the author for these offensive strategies used and if for example, they were successful, reasons explored for their success.