Introduction: continuity and change in the Italian foreign policy

Abstract

The years 1943-45 marked the fundamental turning point in the history of Italian foreign policy. The breakdown of the traditional foreign policy of the Italian state made necessary to rebuild it on new foundations in the new international context. The real rehabilitation came in 1949, when Italy was admitted to the Atlantic Alliance as a founding member, changing in a little more than two years her status from that of a defeated enemy to that of a full fledged ally. Since unification, Italian governing elites had two basic doctrines of foreign policy. During the monarchist period (both Liberal and Fascist), Italian elites fully shared the traditional concepts and practices of traditional diplomacy: power politics, the games of the alliances, defence of national interest, gunboat diplomacy, colonialism and so on. Italy seemed to be particularly cynical (boasting her «sacred egoism»), for the reason that she was a newcomer looking for room. During the Cold War there was a sometimes uneasy compromise between the requirements of Realpolitik and the culture of a political class, which, also as a reaction to Fascism’s excesses, aimed to replace the old tradition with an internationalist outlook. Therefore Italian foreign policy between 1947 and 1950 has been described as the anxious transition from the status of «Great Power» to that of «democratic power», whatever that could mean. After the defeat, the “new” Italy seemed to reject power politics as the essence of international relations, giving importance to multilateral diplomacy and rejected nationalism, replaced by three types of internationalism: Atlanticism, Europeanism and Third Worldism. However we must remark that some traditional features of Italian diplomacy remained: the issue of the rank and collocation in the international hierarchy of powers which had been central in the foreign policy since the birth of the country, the attitude to compromise and even the reliance on Armed Forces to enhance her status.