War Decision and Neoclassical Realism: The Entry of the Ottoman Empire into the First World War

Why did the fracturing Ottoman Empire enter the Great War? Why did the Ottomans drag their feet for a period of three months although the alliance treaty stipulated that the Ottomans should enter the war against Russia if the latter fought with Germany? This article sets forth a neoclassical realist analysis of the war decision by the members of Ottoman foreign policy executive as the outcome of dynamic interactions between the systemic stimuli/structural modifiers and unit-level variables that occurred in a limited time frame (August to November 1914) and sequentially influenced the strategic calculus of the actors involved. It demonstrates that a changing amalgamation of systemic and unit-level factors were instrumental in the Ottoman decision to enter the Great War, the most prominent of which was the divided foreign policy executive.

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The Great War and the Re-drawing of the Ottoman Empire

Britain and Islam ◽

10.12987/yale/9780300234947.003.0008 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 166-197

Author(s):

Martin Pugh

Keyword(s):

Ottoman Empire ◽

Armed Forces ◽

Great War ◽

Full Account ◽

The North ◽

The First World War ◽

New Strategy ◽

The North Sea ◽

The Great War ◽

First World

This chapter details how, during the 14 years before the outbreak of the First World War, Britain comprehensively revised her diplomatic alignments, readjusted her military strategy, and rearranged her armed forces to meet the threat posed by the European powers. In the process, she signed an alliance with Japan and ententes with France and Russia, she concentrated her fleet in the North Sea and the Channel, and developed a plan to prevent Germany from imposing a quick defeat on France by mobilising a new British Expeditionary Force. However, there remained one flaw in all this: she had not really considered the Ottoman Empire or, indeed, the wider question of her relations with the Muslim societies in Turkey, Persia, Egypt, and especially India. This oversight was a by-product of her new strategy, which frankly made security in Europe the chief object and in effect downgraded the importance of the imperial world. As a result, Britain failed to take full account of changes in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa engendered by the Great War.

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A New History for a New Channel: The Great War and the Launch of BBC2

Journal of British Cinema and Television ◽

10.3366/jbctv.2017.0374 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 283-297 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Taylor Downing

Keyword(s):

First World War ◽

Great War ◽

World War ◽

Front Line ◽

Television History ◽

The First World War ◽

The Great War ◽

First World ◽

Intense Debate ◽

Do So

This article considers the making of the BBC2 series, The Great War, and examines issues around the treatment and presentation of the First World War on television, the reception of the series in 1964 and its impact on the making of television history over the last fifty years. The Great War combined archive film with interviews from front-line soldiers, nurses and war workers, giving a totally new feel to the depiction of history on television. Many aspects of The Great War were controversial and raised intense debate at the time and have continued to do so ever since.

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The Italian Empire and the Great War

10.1093/oso/9780198822943.001.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Vanda Wilcox

Keyword(s):

Great War ◽

World War ◽

The Balkans ◽

Italian Experience ◽

The First World War ◽

War Effort ◽

Global Status ◽

Global War ◽

The Great War ◽

First World

The Italian Empire and the Great War brings an imperial and colonial perspective to the Italian experience of the First World War. Italy’s decision for war in 1915 built on its imperial ambitions from the late 19th century onwards and its conquest of Libya in 1911–12. The Italian empire was conceived both in conventional terms as a system of settlement or exploitation colonies under Italian sovereignty, and as an informal global empire of emigrants; both were mobilized in support of the war in 1915–18. The war was designed to bring about ‘a greater Italy’ both literally and metaphorically. In pursuit of global status, Italy endeavoured to fight a global war, sending troops to the Balkans, Russia, and the Middle East, though with limited results. Italy’s newest colony, Libya, was also a theatre of the Italian war effort, as the anti-colonial resistance there linked up with the Ottoman Empire, Germany, and Austria to undermine Italian rule. Italian race theories underpinned this expansionism: the book examines how Italian constructions of whiteness and racial superiority informed a colonial approach to military occupation in Europe as well as the conduct of its campaigns in Africa.

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