PRIVATE DIPLOMACY INITIATIVES AND INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS IN THE 1920s-1940s ROMANIA
PRIVATE DIPLOMACY INITIATIVES AND INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS IN THE 1920s-1940s ROMANIA

Summary/Abstract: Based on private and official archives, the text focuses on the background, the diplomatic and paradiplomatic activity of three princely, intertwined Romanian families: Bibesco, Ştirbey and Brancovan. Heirs to the throne of Wallachia before the arrival of the Hohenzollern monarchs in 1866, these families developed powerful diplomatic, economic and cultural networks in France, Belgium, Britain, Russia, Germany and AustriaHungary conferred influence at home and in various European circles. With solid foundations built since the 1850s, they helped shaping Romania’s diplomacy in the first half of the 20th century and contributed to the country’s pro-European attitude of the 1920s-1930s. Evolving between European capitals and the US, on friendly terms with royalty, high-ranking politicians (Churchill, Roosevelt, Ramsay MacDonald, Léon Blum, Aristide Briand and various French presidents), diplomats and intellectuals (from Louise Weiss, Saint-John Perse, Duff Cooper and Paul Morand to Harold Nicolson, Paul Valéry and Wladimir d’Ormesson), industrialists and bankers, the three families promoted ideas or granted support to initiatives that anchored Romania in the West and enforced European cooperation. The text refers to the personal and professional profiles of prince Antoine Bibesco (d. 1951), of his wife, Elisabeth (née Asquith), of George III, Prince Bibesco (d. 1941), of MichaelConstantine (Bibesco) Prince Bassaraba de Brancovan (d. 1967), and last but not least, of Barbo, Prince Stirbey (d. 1946).

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