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A war in which the main belligerents never come directly to blows: looking back it seems like an impossible concept. War is after all, to quote one of Germany's most prominent theorists on the subject "The continuation of politics by other means"; what happens when politicans fail and the generals take charge. Diplomats fade into the background, soldiers march to the forefront,and all other questions of society subsumed into the goal of making the opponent bend to your will. Victory is a matter of hard power and clear goals, extracted at the point of a spear or bayonet. German writings of this historical anomoly we find ourselves in reflect that view, giving it the dismissive name Das Herrspiel: The Gentleman's Game. Only a culture as insulated from the front lines of actual battle as the Anglo-Saxons could consider the state of affairs for the last century as worthy of our own label of "Cold War". While their authors have accumilated a great collection of works on the Continetal conflicts and colonial insurgencies, on the whole there keep a clear line between "military" and "diplomatic" history with relations to the English speaking world regulated formly to the later.

This may strike the majority of our readers as odd, given the pride the United Kingdom and, later, United States has taken in keeping our conflict civilized. Perhaps the self-same isolation from the horrors of total war that give us the clear,unjaded perspective to see how mankind couldn't afford to see the current rivalry settled by conventional means. Unlike the last Hunderad Years War, where death was delivered at the speed and reach of men under the orders of kings, modern societies have the capacity to snuff out thousands of lives in a mere minute and must answer to their citizens, who generally take execution to the idea of mass slaughter. Instead, prestige and economics is paramount, with the key being the hearts and wallets of peoples across the world. Where violence does occur, it is by proxy: the various "Little Wars" and "Internal Police Actions" that have occurred around the world. While less glorious than the campaigns of old, this topic is no less important and deserves a full coverage.

In this piece, the author will attempt to provide a definitive coverage of the relations between Britain and Germany, and later America and Germany, since the end of the Second Franco-Prussian War of 1914. To do so, however, requires stepping into the ever shifting debate over just when the "Cold War Diplomacy" began. Many scholars will push the idea that the Anglo-German Rivalry became inevitable with the First Franco-Prussian War, the displacement if France as the primary European military power being too much of a disruption of Britain's policy of maintaining a balance of power on the Continent. Others, among whom the author is included, contest this by pointing to the success of Edwardian-era diplomacy at effectively reconciling with France and Russia to build an effective alliance of containment. With the end of the naval buildup race following Germany scrapping it's overly ambitious Dreadnaught building schedule in 1912, it was clear Chancellor Bethmamn-Hollweg recognized that his nation couldn't challenge the status quo so long as the so-called "Triple Entente" remained stable, and there was no reason the post-71 compromise couldn't be maintained at least relative to Germany. Certainly, a challenge would have come from somewhere: with Russia developing a full clip and contantly probing for routes of expansion since the Crimea, but as fate would have it Russia woul reveal her aims too early.

It is here we shall begin our story, on the date the author beleives the policy of Russian reproachment became politically untenable and thus the factors containing German acendency removed. For on March 15th of 1913, during that point in the first stage of the Balkan Conflict where the Bulgarian army was marching into the surrendered city of Adrianople/Edrine and were preparing for a deeper strike towards Konstantinyye itself, that Forgein Ministery under Sasonov transmitted a scandaluous message to Sofia, which read

Given the course of recent events, it is the opinion of His Majesty the Emperor Nicholas that the question of Constantinople and the Straits will be solved finally in the face of the rapid dissolution of the Empire of the Turks. Any solution which does not place the City of Constantinople, the Western shores of the Bosphorus, the sea Marmara and the Dardenelles within the domain or exclusive interest of the Russian Empire will be considered unsatisfactory and insufficient to address our security concerns, and we expect any settlement reached between the Balkan League and the Turkish Empire to include unimpeded and duty-free access to all Russian ships
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