By the early 1900s both Britain and Russia, suspicious of Imperial Germany, decided to stabilize their relations and replace their rivalry in Central Asia - the 'Great Game' - with rapprochement. But as Jennifer Siegel here demonstrates, reality in the field told a different story. The momentum of imperial rivalry, spiced by oil and railway development, could not be arrested and various interests on both sides continued to stoke the fire with increasing aggressiveness. By 1914 Britain and Russia were on the brink of war with each other to be saved only by the outbreak of World War I. This book is a groundbreaking and original study based on hitherto unseen archives in Moscow and St Petersburg, as well as original research in London.