Telosaes.it

August 2013, Year V, n. 8

Carlo Tripepi

Foreign policy in the time of the EU

Telos: As laymen, we’re used to considering international politics as a multilateral confrontation between blocks. We normally think of the international role played by the European Union, or, on a smaller scale, the one played by Italy, as part of the supranational EU structure. Nevertheless, there’s still this sinking feeling that Italy’s international role has been radically downsized. Does talking of an Italian foreign policy make sense anymore?

Ambassador Tripepi: Yes, of course it does. We shouldn’t forget that when the blocks really did exist Italy created its own niche as a key player in the Mediterranean political dialogue and carved out a privileged position vis-à-vis the main antagonist of that period, the USSR. It’s obviously difficult for any country to navigate today’s multipolar world (and not unipolar, as we imagined it would be after the fall of the Soviet Union): there’s more room to manoeuvre, but situations change and crises explode so quickly that it’s difficult for a country, even a ... more

Editorial

What’s left of Italy’s foreign policy? One often gets the impression that there’s less room for independent initiatives, given the anarchy of the current multipolar system, than there was yesterday when the country was straitjacketed by the orderly and reciprocal Yalta agreement. It’s easy to indulge in the rhetoric of decline and reflect, albeit with some complacency, about the final demise of national States and the concept itself of ... more