Lessons of World War I

2014 marks the 100th anniversary of World War I, a war that is often considered the "stupid war," in contrast to World War II, with its stark moral battle against fascism and Nazism. World War I, is remembered as a pointless war caused by obscure local politics in far away territories. Poor soldiers were sent to die in slaughter fields at the behest of detached politicians. The scale of death was unprecedented, due to the use of new technologies. In the end, nothing was solved, and the settlement only set the stage for World War II.

Can anything really be learned from such a stupid war? Yes; it is critical we learn from World War I so that we don't repeat the same mistakes that caused it.

The countries of Europe and the Balkans had fought small conflicts for years in the wake of "the Great War" as they continued to extend their territorial claims. Territorial disputes from decades and centuries earlier simmered unresolved, ready to flare up at any moment.

France was eager to retake territory on its border that Germany had annexed in 1870. Italy abandoned an alliance with Germany when the Allies secretly promised Italy more territories.

The moment of reckoning came when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a 19-year-old member of a Serbian nationalist terrorist organization. One dead Austrian prince set off the chain of reactions that ended with 16 million dead soldiers and civilians.

The title of Christopher Clark's 2012 book, "The Sleepwalkers" succinctly summarizes how so many powers got dragged into the war. They had ratcheted up the tension by developing a culture of antagonism towards their foes and nationalism at home. When this random crisis took place, they didn't have good plans and reacted with imperfect information. German chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg called the war "a leap in the dark."

The Economist wrote in a March 2014 review of the book: "Small crises blew up into big ones as powers probed for weakness of lack of will (even virility) in their rivals."

One hundred years later, the South China Sea and the East China Sea are colored with disputes everywhere between powers vying to avenge the loss of what they see as their rightful territories. The Diaoyu Islands dispute between China and Japan gets the most press, but there are many more islands under dispute in the South China Sea, including the Spratly Islands, claimed by six different countries.

Because of such disputes, war planes fly over the sea and ships patrol the waters, occasionally exchanging fire or seizing fishing boats and arresting crews.