Stephen
Walt is one of my favorite—possibly the favorite—political scientists. In “It's
Not the Guns of August -- It's the Trenches of October,” he asks why WW I
lasted so long, and gives what to me seem to be a well-considered, fully worked
out and concise answer. But I take issue with his following claim.
“…the
only country that emerged from World War I in a stronger position than in 1914
was the United States of America.”
Wrong.
So did Japan. If anything, “it fought [even further] from its own territory,
and its losses were extremely light compared to the… major combatants
[including the United States].”
This
is not trivial, since this experience—or lack thereof—helped Japan willfully
ignore the fact that imperialism had passed its consume-by date.
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