The Tsar's Choice

"Just sitting at home, and a pot falls from the sky."

Things like this happened often in international politics and diplomacy. Much of the time, "truth" was dictated by political necessity.

Take the present situation. Pressured by economic considerations, the London Government had no choice but to support the Berlin Government. But their strength alone was not enough; they had to bring the French in as well.

Against this backdrop, Austria could only be the "mastermind behind the scenes." From the standpoint of interests, the Vienna Government happened to have a motive too, making it even harder to clear itself.

It did not matter if they could not clear themselves. On the matter of the Prusso-Russian War, the United Kingdom and Austria had already been standing on opposite sides. A debt-ridden man did not fear another burden.

Franz did not care, but Alexander II had a headache. Once the British made their move, more than half of their diplomatic efforts had gone to waste.

There was no helping it. Diplomacy truly was not their strong suit. One only had to look at the Tsarist Government's international reputation to see just how amateurish its diplomacy was.

The reason they had achieved their current results was that their opponents were equally green at diplomacy. The two sides were like rookies pecking at each other, barely matching one another.

It was not that Prussia and Russia lacked outstanding diplomats. In terms of the individual capabilities of grassroots diplomats, even if there was a gap, it would not be large overall. The root of the problem lay in decision-making.

Outstanding diplomats were certainly important in international diplomacy, but what mattered even more were the decision-makers above them. They were the ones who truly held the power to determine a nation's foreign policy.

Unfortunately, not