914 and 2014:Uncomfortable parallels and continuing conflicts
by Rajan Philips-August 16, 2014, 6:22 pm
The hundredth anniversary of the Great War (World War I) has spawned many speculative comparisons between 1914 and 2014. The Economist, as well as the New Statesman, saw "uncomfortable parallels", while eminent historians in the West have weighed in on either side of the debate as to whether the world’s financial crisis, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, and big power tensions around the South China Sea are similar to the antecedents of World War 1 and can ignite a major conflagration this decade, if not this year.