International Institutions and European Security: The Italian Debate

Abstract

Reporting on the Italian foreign and security policy debate has never been easy—after all, a real debate never took place, since international issues were carefully kept outside the sphere of domestic politics throughout the postwar period. Italy has been more a security consumer than a security provider. Even today, in spite of the dramatic turn of international events that took place in 1989, the Italian foreign and security policy debate is barely audible. Why? The foremost reason is the current domestic political crisis. In politics, crisis is an abused word, especially in Italy where, it has been mentioned any time the cabinet was reshuffled—more than once a year on average since World War II.