A very interesting debate and I can't resist adding a few points.
The French naval programme around year 1900 caused great concerns in UK. Not because the British feared being beaten in a traditional clash of the lines, but more becuase the french had recognised that they newer could do that, and so had developed/adopted new weaponry and tactics which to a large degree the existing British battlefleet obsolescent.
For instance the tradtional British close blockade of French ports was fast approaching an impossible job due to new weapons like mines and torpedoes and "jeune ecole" tactics. On the open sea great numbers of French armoured cruisers caused many worries and started an AC race, which only ended when Fisher introduced the battlecruiser. British military leaders seriously expected the possibility of the French seizing control of crossing zones in the Channel and landing forces big enough to overwhelm the tiny British Army. I'm NOT trying to start another Sea Lion thread, and I don't necessarily say that their fears were justified, but apparently big enough to be taken serious by some. Could perhaps be compared to the many "scares" of the cold war, some were quite real and some far out, but it is often difficult to see what belonged where.
Russia in early 20th century had the fastest industrial growth rate of any major power, and could in that context be compared to China today. Seen from a British strategic viewpoint of around year 1900, that potential had to be taken very serious. I guess the Russian setback in 1904-05 caused great relief in London, but by 1914 the Russians had a very impressive naval programme again. If they hadn’t by that time been in the Entente I wonder what London would have done, or what they expected to happen after the war? The Russians in Afghanistan (pre-Entente) was not a problem in the context of a sweeping campaign taking all of India, but Afghanistan contained the important passes between Russia and India. With control over Afghanistan Russia would have a foothold for threatening what is now Pakistan and Northern India, eventually the Russians could get access to the Indian Ocean, which really would be scary seen from London. Likewise the Russians gain access to the Med. through Bosperus or to the North Sea through the Danish Straits were British nightmares. If not both in the Entente I guess Afghanistan, Bosperus or Denmark would sooner or later have been the subject of a British-Russian major conflict.
At the same time the Germans could see the growing Russian power becoming a real threat in combination with a vindictive France. IMO the last German real chance (not requiring miracles like that at Tannenberg) for taking out the growing French-Russian squeeze was in 1905 and in that context the Germans alienating also the British though the rhetoric and the naval programme must be considered one of the greatest strategic blunders of history, but there probably wasn’t much the British could have done differently.
Regards
Steffen Redbeard