> For what ... It was a classic case of prisoner's dilemma: several powers solving a mini-max problem. What happens if I arm myself, what if I don't? Of course

> For what ... It was a classic case of prisoner's dilemma: several powers solving a mini-max problem. What happens if I arm myself, what if I don't? Of course, the thorny question is what happens if I don't arm myself and my neighbor continues arming. But then, after arming and arming and arming for decades, at some point the question becomes what happens if I attack first vs what happens if my neighbor attacks first. Unfortunately, in all these questions, when you contemplate the best outcome and the worst outcome, in 1914 history did not show any scary examples of really bad outcomes. All involved parties have been involved in various sorts of interborder conflicts where the worst outcome was not truly devastating. Russia had suffered a pretty bad naval defeat at the hands of the Japanese a few years back, France has lost some territories to Germany a few decades back, but all in all, all major European powers had experienced only success in their recent history. Today, 100 years later, we have different answers to the same questions. Answers that will inevitably include nuclear holocaust. Does this mean we'll never see a major war again? I don't know what the future holds in store. I"m thankful that there was no major war during my lifetime, I can only hope there won't be one during my kids' lifetime.