1914 in 2022

In 2015, when the centenary of the First World War was still in the news, I blogged about a book that argued Britain had prepared an elaborate non-military strategy by which to kneecap Germany if a European war started. In Planning Armageddon, historian Nicholas Lambert set out a British plan to use Britain's immense influence over what then existed of a global financial network.  Germany would be frozen out of all financial transactions, and its ability to wage war would quickly be stifled without Britain having to engage either its navy or army.

But when war actually started, the barons of the London financial world blanched at the prospect of having to close down most of the system that they lived on.  They convinced the government the financial system was too important to be risked in war. So Britain sent an expeditionary force to be annihilated in Flanders instead.

Is it knowledge of the slaughter of the trenches, or awareness of the nuclear threat, that permitted the Euro-American financial system  to be marshalled against Russia in 2022, instead of NATO's air forces and armoured divisions?  

Here's the original post from 2015. I never read much of Lambert's book, but it comes back to me now.