Taking into account the scholarship of the last 20 years, this new edition rejects recent arguments that Britain went to war out of either weakness, fear of an "invented" German menace, or fears for the Empire. Instead, while placing greater emphasis than before on the role of Russia, Zara S. Steiner and Keith Neilson maintain the view that Britain was forced into the war in order to preserve the European balance of power and Britain's favorable position within it.