History of Italian Foreign Policy

This course offers a critical survey of Italian foreign policy, based on the analysis of its main characteristics and turning points since the end of World War II.
Its first goal is to provide students with deeper insights into the recent historical debate, enabling them to focus on the decisions made by the different Italian governments at some key moments, understand their reasons and check their consistency with national interests and compatibility with the international context. Its second goal is to help students understand the main trajectories and guidelines which define Italy's participation in the international community and single out the continuity/discontinuity elements characterizing this country's decision-making and diplomatic processes. Its third goal is to make students familiar with the critical skills required to compare Italy's foreign policy with the policies of other states in order to assess its so-called congenital faults, namely: anachronism, overestimation of the country's international role, subservience to "the big ally", "presence syndrome" , primacy of domestic policies and interests, lack of clarity over ultimate foreign policy aims and inconsistency between means and goals.

At the end of the course the student should be able to elaborate an autonomous story telling of the Italian Foreign Policy, based upon a deep knowledge of historical facts and figures; in the meanwhile, he/she should be able to adopt conceptual parameters and critical approaches in particular to fight back the persistent prejudices that affect the national and foreign interpretation of the Italian foreign action. This would be also useful for the student, in successive working activities, to avoid an instrumental use of these prejudices.