Cui prodest? Italy’s questionable involvement in multilateral military operations amid ethical concerns and national interest

Neoclassical realism and Italy’s military behaviour, 1946–2010: a combined dyad/nation analysis

“…In the highly fragmented and fragile Italian domestic political context, military assertiveness is deemed a very risky policy to pursue in the absence of support, at a minimum, from the mainstream political forces, which can keep the 'radical' and 'isolationist' forces in check (Forte and Marrone 2012, 20-22). This finding also corroborates many of the qualitative studies on peacekeeping and multilateral peace operations that discuss the reasons for active Italian participation in this field over the past few decades (Ignazi, Giacomello, and Coticchia 2012;Tercovich 2016;Carati and Locatelli 2017).…”

Italian Political Parties and Military Operations: An Empirical Analysis on Voting Patterns

“…Indeed, the pacifism of the far-left Italian parties (Coticchia and De Simone 2016), the widespread support by centre-left and centre-right coalitions for the post-Cold War Italian armed forces (Battistelli et al 2012) and the generally low saliency attributed to defence issues by Italian right-wing parties (Calossi and Coticchia 2009) seem to be ideal premises for supporting the curvilinear model. Third, as widely reported by recent literature (Carati and Locatelli 2017;Ignazi et al 2012), we would assume the existence of a large and cross-time bipartisan consensus on the deployment of Italian troops. The expectations regarding such consensus also resonate well with the recent literature that has illustrated how parties can collude to lessen debates on missions, avoiding accountability (Lagassè and Mello 2018).…”

“…In January 2018, the Italian parliament approved an increase in military presence in Libya and the deployment of hundreds of troops in Niger (Scherer 2018). The main centre-left and centre-right parties supported all the planned military operations abroad, which have constantly been a key aspect of post-Cold War Italian foreign policy (Brighi 2013; Carati and Locatelli 2017; Ignazi et al 2012). However, despite the significant military contributions provided by Italy to regional and international security in the last decades, the overall attention devoted to the debates and votes regarding these deployments within the legislative assembly (as well as the role of parliamentary oversight) has been extremely limited.…”

Why did Italy contribute to UNIFIL II? An analytical eclectic analysis

“…In light of these considerations, it is possible to argue that Italy sought to pursue prestige to obtain recognition of its status in the international stage. Two reasons support this argument’s claim: first, given its weakness in military capabilities, Italy’s commitment to multilateral peace operations is a rational strategy to demonstrate reliability as a member of the international community (Carati and Locatelli, 2015). On the other hand, as impediments to multilateral action are many – the collective action problem being the most notable – the active role played by Italy in the context of the crisis can also be understood as an attempt to make multilateralism work – that is, costly signalling to prove the Italian commitment to multilateral institutions.…”

“…This literature has considerably expanded in recent years and it has mainly focussed on single theoretical explanations (Cladi and Webber, 2011; Ratti, 2012; Olmastroni, 2014). More recently, other scholars have begun to consider different drivers to provide a more nuanced account of Italian foreign policy (Ceccorulli and Coticchia, 2015, 2017; Tercovich, 2016; Carati and Locatelli, 2017). However, an attempt to use analytical eclecticism is missing 1 .…”