2018/12/13 by Ali Balcı, Tuncay Kardaş, İsmail Ediz +1 · 4 citations
Social Sciences · #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Islamic Studies and History
paper · doi:10.1177/0968344518789707
openalex publication_date 2018/12/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/17
Why did the fracturing Ottoman Empire enter the Great War? Why did the Ottomans drag their feet for a period of three months although the alliance treaty stipulated that the Ottomans should enter the war against Russia if the latter fought with Germany? This article sets forth a neoclassical realist analysis of the war decision by the members of Ottoman foreign policy executive as the outcome of dynamic interactions between the systemic stimuli/structural modifiers and unit-level variables that occurred in a limited time frame (August to November 1914) and sequentially influenced the strategic calculus of the actors involved. It demonstrates that a changing amalgamation of systemic and unit-level factors were instrumental in the Ottoman decision to enter the Great War, the most prominent of which was the divided foreign policy executive.