Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Rethinking Italy’s Shrinking Place in the International Arena

2016; Routledge; Volume: 51; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03932729.2016.1108613

1751-9721

Federico Romero,

Global Political and Social Dynamics

AbstractItaly’s foreign policy is still shackled by two features inherited from its modern history: an obsessive focus on rank and prestige, and a no less delusional faith in the redemptive character of the EU and other multilateral arrangements it belongs to. The ‘middle power’ foreign policy model elaborated in the 1980s had a rationale of its own but it can hardly be adapted to the globalised world, nor can it be sustained by a deteriorated economic and societal domestic fabric. Italy has to rethink its basic national interests, adapt its foreign policy tools to new concepts of relevance and influence, and focus on a long-term, concerted effort at domestic regeneration if it is to withstand the challenges of the globalised world we live in.Keywords: Italian foreign policymiddle powerglobalisation Notes1 For its scholarly and theoretical presentation, see Santoro, La politica estera.2 The roots and dynamics of this cultural shift are discussed in Romero, L’Italia nelle trasformazioni internazionali.3 Ferguson, The Shock of the Global. Also Rodgers, Age of Fracture, and Romero, Storia della guerra fredda.4 Romero, Refashioning the West, and Del Pero et al., Democrazie.5 See Cominelli, L’Italia sotto tutela; Varsori, La Cenerentola d’Europa?6 Nuti, La sfida nucleare.7 Varsori, L’Italia nelle relazioni internazionali.8 OECD, Economic Outlook 1960-1989.9 Zamagni, Dalla periferia al centro.10 Varsori, La Cenerentola d’Europa?11 Isernia, La cooperazione allo sviluppo.12 Brogi, L’Italia e l’egemonia americana, and Calandri, Il Mediterraneo.13 Santoro, La politica estera; Di Nolfo, La politica estera italiana.14 See Gervasoni, Storia d’Italia; Colarizi, Gli Anni Ottanta.15 Varsori, L'Italia e fine della guerra fredda.16 Toniolo, L’Italia e l’economia mondiale.17 See Brogi, A Question of Self-Esteem; Bosworth and Romano, La politica estera italiana; Neri Gualdesi, L’Italia e l’Europa.18 Among the many texts that articulated such thinking, a particularly influential one in the Italian context was Telò, L’Europa potenza civile.19 See Romero and Varsori, Nazione, Interdipendenza, Integrazione; Graziano, The Failure of Italian Nationhood; Lazar, L’Italie contemporaine.20 Amato et al., Grandi illusioni.21 Samarani and De Giorgi, Lontane, vicine.22 Haass, Foreign Policy Begins at Home.