So I'm having a bit of trouble playing Germany. First of all, I'm sure this is intended, but all my IC is going toward reducing dissent and I am unable to mass enough troops on my border with France before war breaks out. To boot, Russia has gone Communist and Japan seems fairly aggressive in it's own right.
Yeah, they like to use dissent to weaken countries. You can always bring up the console and whack the dissent with a few 'event 1009's.