Unheard Voices: International Relations Theory and Italian Defence Policy

Abstract

The evolution of Italian defence policy in the post-Cold War era has received scarce attention in the literature. Accordingly, also the debate about how International Relations (IR) theories explain (or interpret) the transformation of Italian defence has been extremely limited. Paradoxically, despite a significant transformation of Italian armed forces after 1989, defence issues are still “excluded” from the current debate. While few analyses have tested concurrent hypotheses derived from IR paradigms on Italian missions or on specific security events, a detailed inquiry on the overall theoretical debate and Italian defence policy is still lacking. This paper aims at filling this gap, providing an exhaustive review of the existing approaches that emerged in the literature on post-Cold War Italian defence and assessing their explanatory powers through selected cases (several types of military missions abroad, significant reforms, etc.). The paper illustrates also the main theoretical and methodological problems of the current debate (e.g., the underestimated role of Foreign Policy Analysis), highlighting the elements that deserve further attention.