The Origins of The First World War: Great Power Rivalry And German War Aims

D.C.B Lieven, "Russia and the Origins of the First World War"

The immediate reason for Russia's involvement in the First World War lay in the decisions taken by statesmen and generals during July 1914. No history of the origins of the war could therefore fail to pay considerable attention to the July crisis. The crisis did not, however, exist in a void. On the contrary, it was the latest in a series of diplomatic conflicts which in the decade prior to 1914 had raised international tensions almost to the breaking point.