Jonathan E. Gumz

In which the author uses the case study of the Habsburg occupation and exploitation of Serbia to make a more nuanced examination of state behavior during the Great War, in that while most polities were seeking to maximize public commitment and mobilization to the war effort, the Habsburg officer corps still esteemed a concept of war that saw international conflict as a controlled duel between states. The political implication being that the quality that they desired most from civil society was quiescence; the war being seen as a great opportunity to suppress political practice in the wider empire and reimpose the values of 1848, thus accelerating the disintegration of the administrative bounds of the empire. The self-serving mentality of it all is breathtaking.… (meer)