Angell puzzled over how pre-WWI pan-German politicians could believe that German prosperity required a big battle fleet when the absence of one made no difference to the prosperity of Norway, Denmark, or Holland. He looked forward to the coming of an age of rational statesmanship, when every prime minister and foreign minister would recognize that regardless of the matter in dispute, binding arbitration between nations was a better strategy than war.
就在安格尔撰写著作的同时，有人主张战争是促进国家繁荣的重要手段，商业繁荣是军事力量结出的硕果。令安格尔倍感困惑的是：一次大战前泛德联盟的政治家为什么会认定德国的繁荣需要庞大的军事力量作后盾，而军力的薄弱并未影响到挪威、丹麦或荷兰等国保持繁荣昌盛。他渴望理性治政时代的到来，让所有的首相和外相都认识到：无论引起纷争的事件多么重要，各国之间的联合仲裁永远是比战争更好的解决方法。