At that point, Europe was so armed and tense that war was practically inevitable. All it would take was one act to spark a war and bring the system of alliances into play.
The fact remained: Germany was a new country in Europe that was very industrialized and economically dynamic, which enabled it to field a very modern and powerful military. To put it bluntly, it scared the living daylight out of France and Russia. The Germans knew perfectly well how much they scared their neighbors, and they dreaded a two-front war with France and Russia simultaneously. I could see them finding some excuse for war, therefore preempting before Russia finishes modernizing its military in 1917, because if they allowed that to happen and war later broke out, they would face a war they could not win, and essentially be trapped between their neighbors. Alternatively, they could seek to defuse tensions by proposing non-aggression treaties to the French and Russians. Like in modern times, when they allied with France and began working on the integration of Europe.
Seriously, if I was the Kaiser, I would have attempted to break the stranglehold and defuse tensions by signing a non-aggression pact with France, then focusing all my attention on the less-developed and militarily incompetent Russia.