Alliance Under Stress. Wilson's Fourteen Points and their Impact on Romania

Abstract

The Fourteen Points have become part of a whole political narrative dealing with the birth of a new world order or more exactly with the apparent failure to deliver a functional new world order after the cataclysm of 1914-1918. At the same time any discussion about Wilsonianism leads to questions debates about unilateralism or internationalism or about the acceptance or refusal of interdependence by the United States in world politics. As US policies have fluctuated so much during the recent past it is perhaps natural to return to the founding father of the US global role. This dominant version has also obscured another aspect: while Wilson may have won the battle with posterity and identified himself with the new international order, phrases such as „national rights”, „the principle of nationalities” were already in common use in April 1917. In the short term the Fourteen Points were clearly perceived by Romanian officials as a challenge to their peace program. US refusal to endorse Romanian objective was troubling and the Peace Conference in Paris would prove that Wilson was indeed a reluctant supporter of Romania’s territorial agenda.