Technological advancements leading to WWI made war on an international scale possible. Communication allowed nations to forge alliances, it also allowed growing armies to stay united and organized. Advances in machinery had the possibility of taking 20th century militia into a new era of warfare, but they didn't. Why with all the technological improvements didn't military planning change? The war proved static because incredible new weaponry was coupled with outdated and ineffective tactics.
This provokes the question, Why? There were many renouned military planners during this time and none of them was innovative enough to come up with a solution. It's hard to discern an explanation for this, perhaps the vigor of world war came as a surprise, or planners didn't want to believe times were changing, in either case a lack of adaptation in battle plans lengthened an extremely deadly war.
