1. These claims come in both a ‘hard’ and a ‘soft’ version. The ‘hard’ version is to be found primarily in the press, especially La Repubblica and other dailies and weeklies linked or sympathetic to the centre-left opposition. Some academics have advanced the same claims, albeit in a ‘softer’ way. See, for instance, Aliboni, Roberto, ‘Neo-Nationalism and Neo-Atlanticism in Italian Foreign Policy’, The International Spectator , 38, 1, 2003, pp. 81–90; Ignazi, Piero, ‘Al di là dell'Atlantico, al di qua dell'Europa: dove va la politica estera italiana’, Il Mulino, LIII, 412, 2, 2004, pp. 267–77; Morata, Francesc, ‘La presidenza italiana dell'Unione europea: un semestre “anomalo”’, in Sala, Vincent Della and Fabbrini, Sergio (eds), Politica in Italia. Edizione 2003, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2004, pp. 145–66.Google Scholar

2. In a study of the image of Italian foreign policy held by opinion leaders, Carlo Mongardini remarked over twenty years ago: ‘Foreign policy appears to be a far away planet in the political universe [of opinion leaders].’ See his ‘L'immagine della politica estera italiana’, in Kogan, Norman, Mongardini, Carlo, Salani, Mario P. and Maravalle, Maurizio, Realtà e immagine della politica estera italiana , Giuffrè Editore, Milan, 1980, pp. 13–37, p. 15.Google Scholar

3. See, for instance, Angioni, Franco, ‘Operazioni di peace-keeping e peace-enforcing: il ruolo dell'Italia’, in Santoro, Carlo M. (ed), L'Elmo di Scipio: Studi sul Modello di Difesa Italiano , Il Mulino, Bologna, 1992, pp. 69–88 and Bacchetti, Fausto, ‘Considerazioni sulla politica estera italiana’, Affari Esteri, 25, 100, 1993, pp. 747–61.Google Scholar

4. See http://www.governo.it/Presidenza/diretta_collaborazione.html#diplomatico.Google Scholar

5. On the structure of the Ministry, see Serra, Enrico, ‘La burocrazia della politica estera italiana’ in Bosworth, Richard J. B. and Romano, Sergio (eds), La politica estera italiana/1860–1985 , Il Mulino, Bologna, 1991, pp. 69–89; Caggiula, Claudio and Benedetti, Roberto, Il Ministero degli Affari Esteri, La Nuova Italia Scientifica, Rome, 1992. To my knowledge at least, there is no study of the values, attitudes and beliefs of the Italian diplomatic corps.Google Scholar

6. On the reform, see Silvestri, Stefano, ‘Le proposte di revisione costituzionale e la riforma del ministero degli Esteri’, in Aliboni, Roberto, Bruni, Franco, Colombo, Alessandro and Greco, Ettore (eds), L'Italia e la politica internazionale. Edizione 2000 , Il Mulino, Bologna, 2000, pp. 45–77; Zucconi, Mario, ‘Italy’, in Hocking, Brian and Spence, David (eds), Foreign Ministries in the European Union: Integrating Diplomats, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2002, pp. 163–76. On the identification of top officials with Christian Democratic factions, see Caprara, Massimo, ‘Esteri: ultimo regno degli “Andreottisauri”’ and ‘Farnesina: duello fra andreottiani’, Il Corriere della Sera, 17 and 28 June 1997.Google Scholar

7. Mongardini, , ‘L'immagine della politica estera italiana’, p. 25.Google Scholar

8. ‘L'Italia globale’(special issue), Ideazione , 9, 6, 2002. The interview with Berlusconi is on pp. 11–18.Google Scholar

9. Frattini, Franco, Cambiamo rotta: La nuova politica estera dell'Italia , Piemme Editrice, Casale Monferrato, 2004, pp. 13–15.Google Scholar

10. Greco, Ettore and Matarazzo, Raffaello are the only ‘soft’ critics of the Berlusconi government's European policy who make a distinction between ‘actions’ and ‘declarations’. See ‘Italy's European Policy and its Role in the European Convention’, The International Spectator , 38, 3, 2003, pp. 125–35, pp. 125–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11. Parts of this section are based on my ‘Italian Security Policy after the Cold War’, Journal of Modern Italian Studies , 8, 2, 2003, pp. 266–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. Two examples are the Trieste question in the early 1950s and the Sigonella affair in the mid-1980s, on which see Croci, Osvaldo, ‘The USA, Yugoslavia and the Question of Trieste: The American Policy Reversal of October 1953’, in Morrison, John (ed.), Eastern Europe and the West , St Martin's Press, New York, 1992, pp. 140–70; and Silj, Alessandro (ed.), L'alleato scomodo. I rapporti tra Roma e Washington nel Mediterraneo: Sigonella e Ghedaffi, Corbaccio, Milan, 1998. Even these initiatives, however, whether of the Byzantine variety typical of the Christian Democrats or of the populist one typical of Craxi's Socialists, were the result of perceived domestic political necessities of a partisan type. Hence, they too were more indicative of the primacy of domestic politics than of the existence of a foreign policy conceived as a sphere of action based on national interests and independent of party politics.Google Scholar

13. Parts of this section rework and update arguments I have already advanced in my ‘The Second Berlusconi Government and Italian Foreign Policy’, The International Spectator , 37, 2, 2002, pp. 89–101 and ‘The Americanization of Italian foreign policy?’, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 10, 1, 2005, pp. 10–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14. ‘Victorious Berlusconi Pledges New Era of Change for Italy’, Financial Times website (hereafter, FT.com), 14 May 2001.Google Scholar

15. Campus, Donatella, ‘La formazione del governo Berlusconi’, in Pasquino, Gianfranco (ed.), Dall'Ulivo al governo Berlusconi: Le elezioni del 13 maggio 2001 e il sistema politico italiano , Il Mulino, Bologna, 2002, pp. 275–94.Google Scholar

16. Rizzo, Sergio ‘Che tristezza lo scetticismo del mio governo’, Il Corriere della Sera , 3 January 2002 and ‘France Urges Italy to Restate EU Credentials’, FT.com, 6 January 2002. The rumbles coming from abroad—primarily from Brussels and France—are evidence of a practice that is becoming common in the EU. Namely, EU institutions and some member states have begun to signal loudly their misgivings and displeasure whenever a member state elects governments that include political forces perceived to be on the margins of the ideological mainstream in Western Europe. In the case of Italy, both the Lega Nord and Alleanza Nazionale fell into this category. The European Parliament's rejection of Rocco Buttiglione as Commissioner-appointed can be seen as an additional confirmation of this tendency. The majority of EP members profess in fact what could be called a ‘lay faith’ and can not accept Buttiglione's open profession of Catholicism even though he assured them that his private religious beliefs would not affect his performance as Commissioner.Google Scholar

17. For more details and a balanced analysis of this much discussed episode, see Nones, Michele, ‘L'industria della difesa italiana fra collaborazioni europee e transatlantiche’, in Colombo, Alessandro and Ronzitti, Natalino (eds), L'Italia e la politica internazionale: Edizione 2002, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2002, pp. 116–27.Google Scholar

18. ‘Intervento del Presidente del Consiglio e Ministro degli Affari Esteri ad interim Berlusconi alle Commissioni Riunite (Affari Esteri e Comunitari) della Camera dei Deputati e (Affari Esteri, Emigrazione) del Senato della Repubblica’, 5 February 2002.Google Scholar

19. Castelli, Roberto, ‘Le mie domande sull'Europa a cui nessuno sa rispondere’, Il Corriere della Sera , 9 March 2002.Google Scholar

20. See Council of Europe, European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, Second report on Italy , adopted on 22 June 2001 and made public on 23 April 2002, http://www.coe.int/t/E/human_rights/ecri/1-ECRI/2-Country-by-country_approach/Italy/CBC2-Italy.asp. Google Scholar

21. For more details on the common European arrest warrant, see Ronzitti, Natalino, ‘Governance e giustizia penale internazionale’ in Colombo, and Ronzitti, (eds), L'Italia e la politica internazionale , pp. 52–9.Google Scholar

22. ‘Ruggiero rompe il silenzio: “Con la Lega non potevo stare”’, La Repubblica website (hereafter Repubblica.it), 5 March 2002. Berlusconi tried to minimize Bossi's verbal intemperance as one of his many idiosyncrasies. After Bossi called the EU a ‘Stalinist construction’ and ‘the new fascism’, Berlusconi remarked: ‘You all know Umberto's colourful language. It's not a problem and, even abroad, people have begun to understand these expressions,’ ‘Ruggiero Criticises Bossi's attack on the EU’, FT.Com, 4 March 2002. Other government members were less understanding. The Minister for European Affairs Rocco Buttiglione affirmed for instance: ‘There are limits which one cannot go beyond, unless one wishes to give the impression of not believing in Europe. These limits have been reached’, Il Messaggero, 5 March 2002.Google Scholar

23. On Italian policy towards NATO's enlargement, see Menotti, Roberto, ‘Italy: Uneasy Ally’, in Mattox, Gale A. and Rachwald, Arthur R. (eds), Enlarging NATO. The National Debates , Lynne Rienner, Boulder, 2001, pp. 91–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24. ‘Nato e Mosca sempre più vicine. Insieme contro le crisi’, La Repubblica.it , 12 April 2002. ‘L'Alleanza irritata, presa in contropiede’ and ‘Con una gaffe, Berlusconi annuncia l'accordo Russia-NATO’, L'Unità online, 12 April 2002.Google Scholar

25. For an early assessment of the Berlusconi government's initiatives in this area, see Lucarelli, Sonia, ‘L'Italia e i Balcani occidentali’, in Colombo, and Ronzitti, (eds), L'Italia e la politica internazionale , pp. 203–17. Berlusconi has even mentioned Russia and Israel as possible future candidates for EU membership. Such statements, however, are probably the result of his frequent, personal extemporizations, and not an accurate indication of Italian policy towards enlargement.Google Scholar

26. ‘Italy Ready to Meet Requests for Military Aid’, FT.com , 10 October 2001.Google Scholar

27. See the interview with Undersecretary for Affairs, Foreign, Mantica, Alfredo, in Il Secolo d'Italia , 7 February 2002 as well as Frattini, Franco, ‘La strada per la pace nel mondo passa per il Medio Oriente‘ Intervento del Ministro alla Camera, 8 March 2004, http://www.esteri.it/ita/6_38_90_01.asp?id=1046&mod=3&min=1.Google Scholar

28. On the background of the negotiations, which also involved the Vatican, and Andreotti, Senator, see ‘Fini: “L'Europa si muova e l'Italia farà la sua parte”’, La Repubblica.it , 8 May 2002; the interview with Undersecretary Mantica, Alfredo in La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, 9 May 2002; and ‘Il Cav. Europeista la spunta su Betlemme. Ora tocca all'Europa’, Il Foglio website (hereafter, Il Foglio.it), 13 May 2002.Google Scholar

29. For an early assessment of the Berlusconi government's policy towards the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, see Gallotta, Simona and Guazzone, Laura, ‘La crisi israelo-palestinese: conflitto e diplomazia’, in Colombo, and Ronzitti, (eds), L'Italia e la politica internazionale , pp. 219–38.Google Scholar

30. This section reworks and updates my ‘La fine del consenso bipartisan? La politica estera italiana e la guerra in Iraq’, in Sala, Della and Fabbrini, (eds), Politica in Italia , pp. 125–144.Google Scholar

31. In December 2002, after a meeting with US Under Secretary of Defense for Foreign Policy, Douglas Feith, Martino told the Parliamentary Defense Committee (Commissioni Difesa di Camera e Senato) that, in the event of conflict, Italy would be part of the coalition, although its contribution would be limited to what he called ‘external support’. Following the protests of the opposition, Berlusconi declared that any decision would have to be submitted for approval to Parliament. See Il Corriere della Sera , 18 and 19 December 2002. In a debate with Massimo D'Alema on the TV programe ‘Porta a porta’, 10 March 2003, Martino stated that, personally, he would vote for military intervention in a second Security Council resolution.Google Scholar

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34. On D'Alema and Kosovo, see Croci, Osvaldo, ‘Forced Ally? Italy and Operation Allied Force’, in Gilbert, Mark and Pasquino, Gianfranco (eds), Italian Politics: The Faltering Transition , New York, Berghahn Books, 2000, pp. 33–50.Google Scholar

35. Compellence is defined as the ability to convince an adversary to do something (in this case, convince Saddam to prove that Iraq had disarmed), which is different from deterrence—i.e. the ability to convince an adversary not to do something (e.g. not to attack).Google Scholar

36. The most eloquent and cogent presentation of this position can be found in a speech given by Foreign Minister Franco Frattini to the French National Assembly on 26 February 2003.Google Scholar

37. ‘Europe's Broker’, FT.com , 17 January 2002.Google Scholar

38. Ibid. Google Scholar

39. Greco, and Matarazzo, , ‘Italy's European Policy’, pp. 131–3; ‘Il governo decreta l'emergenza immigrati’, La Repubblica.it, 20 March 2002; Boniver, Margherita, ‘Fronte europeo per fermare i clandestini’, Il Giornale, 25 March 2002.Google Scholar

40. For a list of these, see Morata, , ‘La presidenza italiana’.Google Scholar

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42. Morata, , ‘La presidenza italiana’, p. 163.Google Scholar

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44. Nuti, , ‘The Role of the US’, p. 101.Google Scholar

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46. On this initiative, see the interviews with Baccini, Mario, Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Il Tempo , 26 February 2002 and Il Mattino, 7 March 2002. See also his article ‘Istituti di Cultura; l'azione dei direttori’, Il Corriere della Sera, 14 March 2002.Google Scholar

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