Toward a Global Perspective of the Great War: Japan and the Foundations of a Twentieth-Century World

Here, Dickinson proposes a new global perspective of the First World War. While he is focused squarely upon developments in Japan between 1914 and 1930, it depicts those developments not, in the usual manner, as the foundation of a particular national pathology leading to the Second World War, but rather as reflective of larger global processes. Japan's experience during and immediately following the 1914-1918 years accentuates the importance of World War I in the shift from nineteenth-century conceptions of civilization to a 20th-century world: from elite to democratic politics, from national to increasingly multinational concerns, from unyielding faith in arms to arms control, and from brinksmanship to overtures for peace. He also highlights Japan's pivotal role in the original establishment of these global norms. Finally, he highlights the importance of World War I in spurring a long-term shift in the global center of gravity from Europe to Asia.