The Political Interpretation of Italy’s Military Operations Abroad

Abstract

Chapter 1 highlighted the interaction between the domestic, deep-rooted and shared values concerning Italy’s role in the world and the Cold War’s international constraints. Only when the internal ideological divide that had long juxtaposed communists and centrists (including socialists from the 1960s) started closing in the late 1970s did Italy show a certain degree of self-confidence in the international arena. Its participation in the military operations in Lebanon (1982–4) represented a crucial step in two respects: first, it assessed the evolution of the Italian armed forces towards new responsibilities beyond national boundaries as well as its more consistent integration into the NATO structure; and, second, all political parties in Parliament approved the action. However, international, bipolar cleavage still cut through Italian politics. In fact, when Syria, the Soviet Union’s staunchest ally in the region, increased its presence in Lebanon, the parliamentary consensus ended: the PCI declined to support the mission, demonstrating how sensitive to Soviet pressure it still was. Thus, in the mid-1980s, the fissures imposed by the Cold War structure were still relevant for the main parties’ foreign policy.