Groupthink, preparation, and responsibility for war

This interpretation of Confederate decision-making rejects the idea that war broke out as an abstract inevitability. Leaders who resisted economic and social change also failed to ask whether their state had the industry and infrastructure for a long conflict. That failure is described as groupthink: mounting evidence did not produce a serious reconsideration of the policy course. Whatever political provocation Confederate leaders believed they faced, secession and the decision to answer with violence are treated as the acts that began the war. Moral responsibility is inseparable here from state capacity and strategic preparation.