Shaping national role abroad: Italian military missions since the eighties

Abstract

Since late Seventies/early Eighties, military missions abroad have been a key element in Italian foreign and security policy. Traditionally discharged in a more or less tight multinational framework, they have been the instrument that the country has adopted to assert its international role and pursue – in the different geopolitical contexts – what it perceived to be its core national interests. After the Cold War, this instrument underwent some dramatic changes, due to both domestic and international factors. In recent years, military missions abroad in some instances (as Iraq) have become a deeply divisive element in the domestic political debate, but in most cases have been supported by large majorities in Parliament, albeit with differences on the tactics employed. However, even in the new strategic environment they seem to have maintained their role. This provides the country with good international visibility, due to a good degree of operational excellence.