What you say about Austria-Hungary is probably true( Bush is at least as foolish as Ferdinand though) but nevertheless there were parallels. If Russia had just not gotten involved and let the Austrians get rid of the Serb terrorist groups( I hope you don't deny that the Black Hand was a terrorist group) the Great War would have been avoided.
If Russia had just not gotten involved and let the Austrians get rid of the Serb terrorist groups( I hope you don't deny that the Black Hand was a terrorist group) the Great War would have been avoided.Some day, when I have nothing better to do, I will compose a ten-volume introduction to the study of ways the Great War could have been avoided. I think what's important isn't to look for signs of stupidity and incompetence, for they were nearly universal in July and August, 1914, but to try to establish a real causal framework. With that in mind, I think war was rendered practically inevitable by the blank check of 6 July.