Italy, the UNO and the international crises

Abstract

In post-war Italy, the refusal of nationalism and the aspiration to a policy of international cooperation both at the European and world level were widely shared. At the Potsdam conference American President Truman proposed to admit Italy to UNO, however, this was met with Soviet opposition. In the context of the Cold War, Italy entered the UNO in 1955, together with other 15 countries. At the UNO, Italy’s performance, for example on decolonization issues, was conditioned by her links with the USA, by the membership of the Western bloc and by her economic interests. Italy recognised Communist China only in 1970 and in 1971 voted for its admission to the UNO. In 1969 Prime Minister Moro described at the UN General Assembly a «global strategy of maintaining peace», a manifesto of a détente based on the UNO and on the equality of states as opposed to the «concert of powers». These ideas contrasted the détente pursued by Nixon and Kissinger that were based on traditional power politics and on bilateral relations between the superpowers. In the 1970s Italy’s international status was seriously handicapped by its internal crisis. In the latter part of the Cold War and afterwards, Italian Armed Forced started to participate in military missions abroad with or without UN mandate. These missions aimed to give support to international security and to enhance Italy’s international status within and outside UNO. Italy successfully opposed plans to increase the number of permanent members of the Security Council by proposing a new category of semi-permanent members. In 1999 and 2000, Italy was the fifth contributor to the UN budget and the third in providing troops to UN missions. In 2006 was elected for the 6th time as a member of the Security Council.