Robert Mallett's new survey of Fascist foreign policy from 1933 to the outbreak of the war offers one more piece of evidence to show that Mussolini [End Page 627] willingly aligned with Nazi Germany and closed the door to any option of balancing between the western democracies and Hitler. A decisive moment came at the time of the Ethiopian war, when Mussolini hoped to win British acquiescence for the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. When this consent was not forthcoming, the Duce turned deeply hostile to Britain. But the irreparable break came, as Mallett shows convincingly, during the Spanish Civil War. Italy was drawn in by ideological and strategic ambitions. The conflict became a running sore. Mussolini refused any British overtures to reduce his commitment to Franco's victory. In fact, as the war went on, the Duce seemed to grow more and more contemptuous of the British and more determined to assert his will in the Mediterranean. For his part, Neville Chamberlain, if not Anthony Eden, consistently overestimated Italian military strength.