Description
Please write 6-7 pages paper, double spaced, 12-point Times New Roman with 1-inch margins.
It should address ONE of the following prompts, using only lecture notes and Fromkin (Fromkin, David. Europe’s Last Summer: who started the Great War in 1914? Vintage Books. 2005.):
1. Use structural theory to explain the behavior of one major power in 1914.
2. Use institutional theory to explain the behavior of Austria, Hungary, Germany, and Russia in 1914.
3. Explain the security dilemma using WWI data to illustrate it.
4. Use WWI to illustrate the balance of power.
5. Explain the problem or paradox of domestic commitment.
Do not use outside sources!!!!!!
Please use simple words and garmmar, as simple as you can.
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Explanation & Answer
Attached.
Running head: POLITICAL SCIENCE
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Political Science
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date
POLITICAL SCIENCE
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Using WWI to Illustrate the Balance of Power
Introduction
The balance of power was established in 1815 at the Congress in Vienna to ensure there
would be no state powerful enough to dominate other states. The balance of power system
prevented any major wars for a period extending 50 years. However, social, economic and political
changes distorted the balance. Amongst the main changes that imbalanced the power include the
fall of Ottoman Empire and the rise of Germany as a single most powerful state because of its
prosperous economy and firm political structure. The balance of power implied that if one country
within Europe became too powerful, then the other four states would form an alliance to neutralize
and monitor the country with most powers (Fromkin, 2005). The political and economic changes
in Germany greatly altered the manner of interaction by the European states, under-estimated the
concept of balance of power and finally led to the outbreak of WWI.
When WW1was finally declared in August 1914, the balance of power was a major issue.
The protagonists of the war had a belief of holding the balance of power by examining their
strength. The strength of a European nation was measured by examining statistics about its
population, the number of soldiers, the number of battleship, cruisers, and submarines. It was also
examined by considering the value of the currency at the time and the stretch of the railway line
in the country. While Germany had the highest number of soldiers (over 8.5 million) prepared for
the Great War, Great Britain had fewer soldiers (over 711,000) but had the highest number of the
military facility over all the other four countries in the European battle (Fromkin, 2005). The
balance of power in the war involved the combination of old tactics together with the use of new
POLITICAL SCIENCE
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weapons although this was miscalculated leading to horrors of trench warfare and its related
factors.
Despite the fact that the parties had entered an agreement on how to uphold to the principle
of the balance of power, the behavior of leaders and the governments of others states could indicate
that such balance was impractical. For instance, Germany sympathizers were open to claim that
the country was surrounded by enemies and its survival in Europe was at stake. Germany
militarism was...