If the aftermath of WW1 were the re-arrangement of the European power balance with Germany purposely spared, then we still live with a very tangible consequence of WW1. The existence of Yugoslavia, the Czech Republic and Hungary among others is a result more or less of the post-war measures taken to dismantle the Habsburg Empire; the preservation of Germany was just as much a conscious decision by the Allied victors. Could you imagine how different our political landscape (not to mention 20th century world history) would be had the Allies decided to liquidate the German Reich in 1918? Continue reading “on the failure of inter-war collective security” →