Effective strategic narratives? Italian public opinion and military operations in Iraq, Libya, and Lebanon

Abstract

Public attitudes are greatly shaped by the cohesiveness of the strategic narratives crafted by policy-makers in framing the national involvement in war. The literature has recently devoted growing attention toward the features that define successful strategic narratives, such as a consistent set of objectives, convincing cause-effect chains, as well as credible promises of success. This paper provides an original framework for 'effective strategic narratives' for the case of Italy. The military operations undertaken by Italian armed forces in Iraq, Lebanon, and Libya represent the cases through which the framework is assessed. Drawing on content and discourse analysis of political debates and data provided by public opinion surveys, this paper explores the nature of the strategic narratives and their effectiveness.

Russian, US and Chinese Revisionism: Bridging Domestic and Great Power Politics

“…We concur with Silove (2018) that a grand strategy can be understood as a combination of a narrative and a practice. However, in contrast to a grand strategic perspective that simplistically views the domestic environment as static, the perspective of strategic narratives allows a higher degree of sensitivity to domestic social dynamics (Coticchia 2015). This allows us to identify whether-and to what extent-strategic narratives incorporate or co-opt populist programmes and their relationship to achieving domestic control.…”

Nuevas quimeras y antiguos victimismos: la política exterior italiana (2008-2018)

“…Por último, el debate sobre el objetivo estratégico de las misiones internacionales de paz pone de manifiesto, aún de manera opuesta, el perdurar de una cultura estratégica inmadura, en gran medida refractaria no ya al uso de la fuerza, sino más bien a una reflexión consciente sobre las finalidades y la influencia negociadora del instrumento militar. De hecho, la ciencia política italiana está descubriendo el tema de las misiones militares, que ya no son de dominio exclusivo de los estudios estratégicos (Attinà, 2009;Ignazi, Giacomello y Coticchia, 2012;Coticchia, 2015;Carati y Locatelli, 2017;Ceccorulli y Coticchia, 2017). Sin embargo, lo que queda claro es, una vez más, la incapacidad de las elites políticas de reformar el sector de la defensa, modernizándolo y fortaleciéndolo.…”

‘Italy’s involvement in PSO: between self-interest and the logic of appropriateness’

“…Consistent with the constructivist view, the strategic narratives of the interventions are always framed in terms of humanitarian emergencies, and as a contribution to international security. The humanitarian and multilateral argument has been critical in overcoming the resistance of domestic political forces and the public in general, against a more active foreign policy (Olmastroni 2014;Coticchia 2015;Coticchia and De Simone 2016), as in the Italian involvement in the Kosovo campaign, the post-war phase of Iraqi Freedom and Afghanistan's OEF/ISAF.…”