Italy in the International System from D彋ente to the End of the Cold War ― The Underrated Ally

This edited collection offers a new approach to the study of Italy’s foreign policy from the 1960s to the end of the Cold War, highlighting its complex and sometimes ambiguous goals, due to the intricacies of its internal system and delicate position in the fault line of the East-West and North-South divides. According to received opinion, during the Cold War era Italy was more an object rather than a factor in active foreign policy, limiting itself to paying lip service to the Western alliance and the European integration process, without any pretension to exerting a substantial international influence. Eleven contributions by leading Italian historians reappraise Italy’s international role, addressing three complex and intertwined issues, namely, the country’s political-diplomatic dimension; the economic factors affecting Rome’s international stance; and Italy’s role in new approaches to the international system and the influence of political parties’ cultures in the nation’s foreign policy.

Antonio Varsori is Professor of History of International Relations at the University of Padova, Italy. He is also member of the Commission for the Publication of Italian Diplomatic Documents at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His most recent publications are L’Italia e la fine della guerra fredda. La politica estera dei governi Andreotti (1989-1992) (2013) and Storia internazionale. Dal 1919 a oggi (2015).

Benedetto Zaccaria is a Research Assistant at the Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre of the European University Institute, Florence, Italy. He is the author of The EEC’s Yugoslav Policy in Cold War Europe, 1968–1980 (2016).