EconAir

  Erich Ludendorff This is a summary of the reasons Germany lost World War I.   The  Entente  was the alliance of France, Russia, and England, later including the United States. Sometimes called the Allies.   German Planning (Schlieffen Plan) Germany’s strategy was based on the Schlieffen Plan, first developed by the head of the German General Staff in the 1890s. The essence was that most of the German Army would quickly attack France and defeat France in six weeks, before Russia could fully mobilize. Then much of the army could be quickly transported on Germany’s superb railroad system to the east to defeat Russia. The Plan was reviewed and updated by the German General Staff every year up to 1914, first under Schlieffen and then under his successor, von Moltke. Helmut von Moltke was the nephew (and namesake) of the general that led German forces to victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The German General Staff never seriously considered an...

When al Qaeda struck the World Trade towers and the Pentagon in 2001, the United States had been the world’s only superpower for ten years. But what does it mean to be a superpower in the modern world? A world of over 200 countries, multinational corporations, global financial markets, global mobility of people and information, and a myriad of competing groups like non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Human Rights Watch, global religious groups, drug cartels and terrorist groups. How much power does the United States have to control, or at least influence, events outside the United States? What does it depend on? As throughout history, it partly depends on the strategic choices made by the political leadership of the superpower and how skillfully that leadership reacts to opportunities. Al Qaeda overplayed its hand with the attack on the World Trade center. As the only superpower, there was a lot of resentment aimed against the United States. Countries and NGOs tha...