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The High Command and Diplomacy in Austria-Hungary, 1914-1916

Professional soldiers and diplomats are invariably aware of the special role they play in furthering the welfare and promoting the interests of their nation. Products of highly specialized training in their respective fields and traditionally jealous of their own prerogatives, each stands guard against the reduction of his authority through the interference of the other. However, the exigencies of war produce the tendency if not the necessity for military leaders and high-echelon diplomats to permit intrusion in their affairs, one by the other, since victory or catastrophe may well depend on their wartime cooperation. While a declaration of war makes the right of trespass almost immediately bona fide, it nevertheless does not eliminate varying degrees of friction between the two groups; it is that friction which may prove as crucial to the outcome of the conflict as does action on the field of battle. In spite of the extensive literature existing on World War I, the relationship between Austrian military and diplomatic officials and the extent to which one group asserted its influence over the other or obtained the cooperation it needed remains less than certain. The available evidence in Austrian and German unpublished documentary materials allows for clarification of the matter. Research reveals that, contrary to developments in Germany, the Austrian army did not emerge with a consistently dominant influence. Decisions in the Dual Monarchy were made by weighing various factors peculiar to a given problem, rather than according to predetermined status or because of increased authority gained by either of the two governmental branches. Negotiations between those branches reflect attitudes and what were often strong attempts by the German ally to influence Austrian judgments. Although there is no doubt that Germany was at times able to impose its will, the decisions of the Dual Monarchy in various instances were made to satisfy its peculiar needs and interests, notwithstanding the pressures of the Wilhelmstrasse and the German high command. The validity of these assertions is borne out by an examination of the wartime attitudes of Bulgaria, Italy, and Romania. In the case of each of these three states, a declaration of neutrality had followed the start of the war. Their open support against the Entente powers became