First off, let's talk about the history of the Alliance briefly. The Alliance, much like the Horde, has gone through some very drastic changes. After the First War, when the surviving humans of Stormwind were forced to flee north to Lordaeron, the remaining human nations realized they were going to need to do something to deal with the threat posed by the Horde. Lordaeron (the country, rather than the sub-continent) and specifically King Terenas Menethil, was among the prime advocates for the formation of the Alliance - a union between the various human nations and Stormwind's exiles. The Alliance was actually originally called "The Alliance of Lordaeron," which is why the Alliance symbol (such as the little PvP flag you'll get on your character's portrait) is a big L (with a sort of P-like curve at the top - I'm not sure if this is just a caligraphy-like flourish or if it's meant to be the Azerothian version of the letter L.)
Anyway, the Alliance was always a bit like NATO - a group of politically independent entities banded together in a kind of permanent defensive pact. During the second war, the Alliance of Lordaeron would come to include the High Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes (complimenting the Horde's acquisition of Ogre, Troll, and Goblin allies.) However, despite their military unification and their ultimate victory against the Horde (which is why the southern two thirds of the Eastern Kingdoms is essentially Alliance territory today,) the Alliance was never quite the total unification that the Horde was.
The Alliance has seen profound changes. Lordaeron, as we all know, was utterly devastated in the Third War, and the few survivors of the Scourge have gone on to live either in Theramore or Stormwind, or have joined anti-Scourge religious orders like the Scarlet Crusade or the Argent Crusade. Despite the devastation of the founding member of the Alliance, and the loss of most of the High Elves (mainly due to the unfortunate attitude of one powerful Alliance General, Garrithos,) they have also gained a strong foothold on Kalimdor with the Night Elves, and even have the greatest expertise on the larger universe thanks to the inclusion of the Draenei.
The Alliance has had great success over the past few years defeating the major threats posed by the Burning Legion, the Scourge and the Old Gods, but they have had difficulty in dealing with a newly aggressive Horde. Theramore, once a fairly indisputable safe haven for the Alliance in Kalimdor, is under heavy assault (and is going to get destroyed,) and the Forsaken are making a concerted push to capture the entire sub-continent of Lordaeron for themselves. Despite a bold push into the Southern Barrens, pretty much everywhere else on the globe, the Alliance is either on the defense or on the retreat.
Part of the problem that the Alliance has is that it is very decentralized. The Night Elves, for instance, seem to be fighting the Horde incursions into Darkshore and Ashenvale entirely on their own, while the Humans fight in the Southern Barrens with little coordination with the Night Elves in the north (granted, the main point of the invasion of the Barrens is to connect Theramore with Night Elf territory, but you get the impression there's not a huge amount of communication.)
On the other side of things, despite the fact that the Forsaken have a great deal of cultural independence, Sylvanas' invasion of Gilneas and Hillsbrad is heavily supported by Orcish troops - much of your time in Silverpine, for instance, involves fighting alongside (ok, rescuing) Orcish marine forces. Sylvanas, for all of her rogue intentions, is theoretically pledged to serve the Warchief.
So what is the Alliance to do? Well, Blizzard has said that big changes are coming, and they're centered around Varian Wrynn. Varian is the closest thing the Alliance has to a leader. The Alliance was started in order to retake Stormwind, and Stormwind's been the primary force in the Alliance since the end of the Third War. We've been told that there will be a series of quests called "Trials of the High King," where Varian proves himself to the various leaders of the Alliance, and ultimately earns the place as the Chief Executive Officer of the entire thing.
This being the Alliance, rather than the Horde, you can expect that rather than simply beating all the other racial leaders up, he'll have to solve diplomatic issues (though some of this will inevitably involve beating other things up.) But assuming that he passes these trials (and given that we players will be involved, of course he will,) you're going to see a very different Alliance. Now, everyone in the Alliance, not just loyal subjects of Stormwind, will have a common Commander in Chief to follow. Alliance forces have never been completely segregated, but expect far more coordination between, for example, Dwarves and Night Elves, or Draenei and Gnomes (man, with the two of them working together, shouldn't the Alliance have freaking Starfighters by now?)
It's going to be a lot harder to push the Alliance around once this comes about, and especially with Garrosh losing his shit (possibly because of that fact) you can expect that Team Blue is going to turn this war around - hell, they might even march right through the gates of Orgrimmar.
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