Negotiating an Allied Policy: The Supreme War Council and Macedonia

Discussions over the war in Macedonia illustrate the complicated nature of policy making between allies. While the Russian Revolution negatively altered the strategic situation for the Allies and the Americans, the French army strikes, the Italian rout at Caporetto and the failure of the Flanders offensive convinced the Allies that the war would not be won until 1919 or even 1920. It is within this context that the following paper considers how, through the Supreme War Council, the British, French and American governments negotiated a policy in the Balkans despite their competing interests. It does so while illuminating the relationship between immediate and future needs, as well as the inter-dependence of the various theatres of war.