Italy's Foreign Policy in the 21st Century—A Contested Nature?

Italy’s foreign policy has often been dismissed for punching below its weight, for being too idiosyncratic and inconsistent.

This book offers new insights into the position attained by Italy in the contemporary world. It explores how the country has sought to take advantage of the passage from a bipolar to a multipolar system, the ways in which it has engaged internationally, the new responsibilities it has assumed, and the ways in which it conducts its policies in the pursuit of its interests, whether political or commercial. It argues that Italy is engaged internationally but there is a perception gap between its actions and what it actually delivers. As long as this gap continues, Italy is likely to remain a partial and inconsistent foreign policy actor. Divided into three parts:

• Part 1 explores the context and processes which characterise Italy’s external action.
• Part 2 deals with Italy in a new global order and debates its relations with crucial countries and regions: the US, the EU, and the BRICs.
• Part 3 focuses on Italy’s perspectives on security and defence policies.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of European Politics, Foreign Policy Analysis and Italian studies.

Ludovica Marchi Balossi-Restelli has been Teaching Assistant to the course The New Europe: People, Places and Politics, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, and External Examiner on the International Relations and Global Politics programme, the American University in Rome (2011).

Geoffrey Edwards is Reader in European Studies in the Centre and holds a Jean Monnet chair in Political Science. He is a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he is also a Graduate Tutor. He has held research posts at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a number of other institutions including the Federal Trust and Chatham House. He specialises in the European Union, its institutions and its foreign and security policies.

Richard Whitman is Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent, UK. Professor Whitman is an Associate Fellow at Chatham House (formerly known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs) and convenes the work of the Brussels-based European Policy Centre (EPC) programme on the European Union’s neighbourhood policy.