Cooperarea politico­-militară din cadrul coalițiilor beligerante în anii „Marelui Război”. Cazul României
Political and Military Cooperation within the Two Belligerent Coalitions during “The Great War”. Romania’s Case

Summary/Abstract: The study examines the cooperation within the two warring coalitions in World War 1. It starts from the hypothesis – which was confirmed numerous times in history – that collaboration within coalitions is always a difficult task, given the divergent or even contradictory interests of the actors involved. The Great War was no exception. Within the Central Powers, Germany succeeded, but not without difficulties, to coordinate the efforts of the allies, this fact being facilitated by the territorial continuity achieved after the defeat of Serbia (1915). German hegemony over the command of the operations was not sufficient to achieve victory, as the First World War was, in the words of Erich Ludendorff, a total war. The combined potential of the Entente was significantly larger than the one of the Central Powers. Also, Russia’s exit from the war was compensated by the entry of the United States as an associated power. However, the Entente, in three years and a half, has not managed to create a unitary command of the operations, something that reflected on the battlefield, the Entente suffering many defeats in France, Italy and the Balkans. It was as late as March-April 1918 when, in the context of the German offensive, the allies managed to put behind their national pride, appointing Ferdinand Foch as the commander-in- chief of the allied forces, something that represented one of the decisive factors behind the victory from October-November 1918. As for the operations of the Romanian army, they unfolded under national command in the autumn of 1916, in December same year being created the Romanian Front, a joint structure headed by King Ferdinand. Nevertheless, the cooperation between the Romanian and the Russian armies at the command level went through tensioned moments. Also, an important role was played the French Military Mission, headed by General Henri Mathias Berthelot.

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