Italian foreign policy in the post-cold war period: a neoclassical realist approach

Cladi, Lorenzo; Webber, Mark

doi:10.1080/09662839.2011.565052

Cited by 27 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…During the past ten years, a new collection of studies on Italian foreign and military behaviour has appeared with more far-reaching and theoretically grounded considerations on the interplay between domestic and international variables. Some are consistent with the model advanced in this research (Newell 2011; Walston 2011; Brighi 2013), 4 and some of them are also based on an explicit neoclassical realist framework (Cladi and Webber 2011;Davidson 2011). Elisabetta Brighi's work is a theoretically informed analysis of Italian foreign policy, from its unification to the post-Cold War period that explores the interplay of context, strategy and discourse.…”

Section: Competing Explanations For Italy's Military Behavioursupporting

confidence: 70%

“…Contrary to previous studies proposing an original theoretical framework or following the tradition of Putnam's two-level game, both the article by Lorenzo Cladi and Mark Webber and Jason Davidson's book are clearly embedded in a neoclassical realist approach. Cladi and Webber (2011) advance a neoclassical realist explanation of Italian foreign policy in the post-Cold War period. However, they propose only a narrative interpretation of the 1994-2008 period, and in this respect the present quantitative analysis adds to their more discursive study.…”

Section: Competing Explanations For Italy's Military Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 90%

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

Rosa

Benati

Foradori

et al. 2020

Political Research Exchange

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This article carries out a quantitative analysis of the military behaviour of Italy from 1946 to 2010 using neoclassical realism as the theoretical framework. By overcoming the limits of traditional explanations of Italian security and defence policies, neoclassical realism provides new insight into Italy's involvement in militarized interstate disputes by taking into account both systemic and domestic variables. The method used is a combination of dyad analysis introduced by Stuart Bremer in 1992 and the analysis of unit-level variables, which is distinctive of neoclassical realism. An analytical model is developed, and bivariate and multivariate analyses are performed to explain the impact of the variables. By empirically testing a set of hypotheses, the study argues that Italian military behaviour is a function of the country's relative power as well as the levels of elite instability and regime vulnerability, the extraction capacity of the state, and the degree of elite consensus. The study contributes to the existing scientific debate on the determinants of Italian international behaviour and to the literature on neoclassical realism by demonstrating that its main propositions apply to a case of middle power and that these propositions can be tested on a large scale through quantitative approaches.

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Section: Competing Explanations For Italy's Military Behavioursupporting

confidence: 70%

Section: Competing Explanations For Italy's Military Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 90%

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

Rosa

Benati

Foradori

et al. 2020

Political Research Exchange

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“…The primary reason for this is, according to realists, the anarchic nature of the international system, which forces states to fear for their survival and therefore for their relative power position. As conceived here, international gains refer to both strengthened security in the neorealist sense (Waltz 1979, Mearsheimer 2001) and more external influence in the neoclassical realist sense (Rose 1998, p. 152, Cladi andWebber 2011). When political leaders obtain domestic political gains, on the other hand, their political power on the domestic scene is increased, i.e., their chances of retaining (or entering) office are enhanced (Hagan 1993, Bueno de Mesquita andSiverson 1995).…”

Section: Importance Of International Gainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

When governments ignore public opinion in foreign policy: Poland and the Iraq invasion

Doeser

2013

European Security

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This article asks why the Government of Poland participated in the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 when a large majority of the Polish public was opposed to national involvement in Iraq. The aim is to further an understanding of the circumstances under which democratic governments ignore public opinion in their foreign policy decision-making. The article argues that a combination of three circumstances increased the willingness of the government to ignore the public. First, the Iraq issue had relatively low salience among the Polish voters, which decreased the domestic political risks of pursuing the policy. Second, the government's Iraq policy was supported by a considerable consensus among the political elite. Third, the political elites were unified in their perceptions that participating in the invasion would yield essential international gains for Poland.

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“…Since the early years of the Post-Cold War era, with the monumental changes occurred in both the international arena and the domestic political context, scholars have debated on the analytical dimensions explaining Italy's strategic culture and international behaviour. Drawing on neo-realist and constructivist approaches to international relations, a first line of research has indicated a certain stability in Italian foreign policy (IFP) (Attinà, 1991;Bonvicini et al, 2011;Cladi and Webber, 2011), demonstrated by the persistent commitment of both ruling and opposition parties to the two major pillars (or circles) of IFP: the Atlantic Alliance and the European integration process. In this perspective, Italy's foreign policy was conceived, within these interdependent pillars (Andreatta and Hill, 1997;Carbone, 2007;Croci, 2007Croci, , 2015, as defensive and low-profile multilateralism.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The alleged consensus: Italian elites and publics on foreign policy

Olmastroni

2017

Riv. ital. sci. polit.

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The article compares the way Italian (governmental and political) elites and (organized and general) publics perceive the international system and conceive of the role of Italy in it by using an ad hoc survey conducted specifically for this study. In order to establish whether a horizontal (left-right) and vertical (top-down) consensus exists on foreign policy, special attention has been paid to divergence and convergence patterns in terms of threat perception, feelings towards the (American and European) allies, support for the main institutional mechanisms of coordination and cooperation, and willingness to use military power to defend the constituted order and the national interest, while controlling for the position and level of action of each actor within the foreign policy-making process as well as her or his ideological orientation. While tracing elites’ and publics’ attitudes towards a wide range of foreign policy and security issues, the article reveals the effect of ideological and situational factors on the strategic preferences of national policy-makers and public opinion. In doing this, it contributes to define both the substance and boundaries of the alleged consensus, based on shared norms and historical legacies, supposedly overcoming socio-economic and political cleavages in matters of foreign policy

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Italian foreign policy in the post-cold war period: a neoclassical realist approach

Cited by 27 publications

References 33 publications

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

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

When governments ignore public opinion in foreign policy: Poland and the Iraq invasion

The alleged consensus: Italian elites and publics on foreign policy

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