Revisiting Italian Mediterranean policy in the 1950s : internally or externally-driven? : the interplay of domestic constraints and external pressures

Abstract

This article aims to explore Italy´s 'Neo-Atlanticist' foreign policy (FP) strand in the mid-1950s to highlight the complex interplay of external and internal political dynamics. It corresponded to the third circle of Rome´s FP loadstars - the Mediterranean and Arab world – with Rome intending to conduct an autonomous policy that was often seen as clashing with its Atlanticist commitments. Italian foreign policy was tightly constrained by its integration in Euro-Atlantic alliances, but it was also able to cut for itself a margin of independent maneuver in pursuit of a more autonomous policy in the Mediterranean.