Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T21:04:48.184Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Italy and the politics of European defence: playing by the logic of multi-level networks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2016

Paolo Foradori
Affiliation:
Paolo Foradori, Facoltà di Scienze Politiche, Università di Catania, via Vittorio Emanuele 49, 95131 Catania. E-mail: [email protected].
Paolo Rosa
Affiliation:
Facoltà di Sociologia, Università di Trento, via Verdi 26, 38100 Trento. E-mail: [email protected].

Summary

The article looks at the role of Italy in the decision-making arena of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), analysing the initiatives it put in place to address and influence the construction of a common defence. The article aims to explain the ability or inability of Italy to build up a consensus around its proposals. By studying two initiatives in the field of European defence and security, it seeks to determine the factors which resulted in the differing outcomes of Italian actions at the European level.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. CFSP is the institutional mechanism created by member-states to coordinate their activity in foreign policy and put into motion common action on behalf of the EU. The ESDP is the mechanism created to provide a military instrument to support external action by the EU.Google Scholar

2. What follows is based primarily on a series of interviews with Italian officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Defence and with other policy-makers directly involved in the two cases. They were carried out in 2003 and at the start of 2004.Google Scholar

3. Krahmann, Elke, Multi-level Networks in European Foreign Policy , Ashgate, Aldershot, 2003.Google Scholar

4. Keohane, Robert and Nye, Joseph S., ‘Transgovernmental Relations and International Organizations’, World Politics , 27, 1, 1974, pp. 3962.Google Scholar

5. Dottori, Giuseppe and Laporta, Piero, ‘La definizione e la rappresentanza degli interessi nazionali dell'Italia nel nuovo sistema multi-istituzionale di sicurezza europea’, Rivista Militare , 68, 6, 1995, pp. 98115, p. 112. Relations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence in Italy are similar to those found in other EU member-states, with Foreign Affairs lining up behind more pro-European positions and Defence behind the Atlantic Alliance. Hill, Christopher (ed.), The Actors in Europe's Foreign Policy, Routledge, London, 1996.Google Scholar

6. Jopp, Mathias, ‘The Strategic Implications of European Integration’, Adelphi Paper , 290, 1994, p. 8.Google Scholar

7. Interview, Rome, 30 May 2003b.Google Scholar

8. Holmes, John W., ‘La politica estera italiana’, in Hellman, Stephen and Pasquino, Gianfranco (eds), Politica in Italia: I fatti e le interpretazioni, Edizione 1993, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1993, pp. 182, 189–90.Google Scholar

9. Gualdesi, Marinella Neri, ‘La politica d'integrazione europea’, Internazionali, Istituto Affari (ed.), L'Italia nella politica internazionale (1990–1991) , Franco Angeli, Milan, 1993, pp. 153–89.Google Scholar

10. The initiative with the United Kingdom seemed to put forward again Italy's propensity ‘for waltz turns’. Interview, Berlin, 5 November 2003.Google Scholar

11. Holmes, , ‘La politica estera italiana’, p. 187.Google Scholar

12. Christian Democracy (DC), Italian Socialist Party (PSI), Italian Social Democratic Party (PSDI) and Italian Liberal Party (PLI).Google Scholar

13. Gualdesi, Neri, ‘La politica d'integrazione’, pp. 168–9.Google Scholar

14. ‘It was an impulse that started in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the suggestion by De Michelis, and was materialized in a direct dialogue with the British.’ Interview, Berlin, 5 November 2003.Google Scholar

15. Kingdon, John W., Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies , Little, Brown, Boston, 1984, p.188.Google Scholar

16. Interview, Berlin, 5 November 2003.Google Scholar

17. Sergio Romano considers De Michelis the most ‘exuberant and dynamic Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs since Sforza’. See Romano, S., Guida alla politica estera italiana , Rizzoli, Milan, 2002, p. 241.Google Scholar

18. ‘This document is mine and Douglas Hurd's.’ Interview with former Minister of Foreign Affairs Gianni De Michelis, Venice, 8 January 2004.Google Scholar

19. Declaration before the Italian Senate, 20 June 1991. Interview with Gianni De Michelis, Venice, 8 January 2004.Google Scholar

20. The success of EMU was just as important for Italy as that of the political Union. Interview with Gianni De Michelis, Venice, 8 January 2004.Google Scholar

21. Interview, Rome, 30 May 2003b.Google Scholar

22. Ibid. Google Scholar

23. Interview with Gianni De Michelis, Venice, 8 January 2004.Google Scholar

24. The Minister of Defence was the Christian Democratic, Virginio Rognoni.Google Scholar

25. Interview, Rome, 30 May 2003b.Google Scholar

26. Interview, Rome, 30 May 2003b and Berlin, 5 November 2003.Google Scholar

27. Interview, Rome, 30 May 2003b and with Gianni De Michelis, Venice, 8 January 2004.Google Scholar

28. Interview with Gianni De Michelis, Venice, 8 January, 2004.Google Scholar

29. Interview, Berlin, 5 November 2003.Google Scholar

30. Ibid. Google Scholar

31. Anglo-Italian Declaration on European Security and Defence in the Context of the Intergovernmental Conference on Political Union , London, Rome, 4 October 1991. The text of the document is reproduced in Rummel, Reinhardt (ed.), Toward Political Union: Planning a Common Foreign and Security Policy in the European Community, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden Baden, 1992, Annex 6, pp. 353–4.Google Scholar

32. Interview, Berlin, 5 November 2003.Google Scholar

33. The Italian government, especially the Minister of the Treasury, Guido Carli, and Foreign Minister De Michelis, seemed convinced that Italy could be included among the first member-states to enter into the single currency. De Michelis, Gianni, ‘La vera storia di Maastricht’, Limes , 3, 1996, pp. 137–44.Google Scholar

34. Atlantic News , 2329, 8 June 1991.Google Scholar

35. Ibid. Google Scholar

36. Council of Ministers, Brussels, 23 April: Communiqué. The document is reproduced in Rummel, Toward Political Union, Annex 4, p. 346.Google Scholar

37. Council of Ministers, Vianden (Luxembourg), 27 June 1991: Communiqué. The document is reproduced in Rummel, Toward Political Union, Annex 4, p. 347.Google Scholar

38. The United States had communicated its views on a common European defence to the Council of Ministers of the WEU through the so-called ‘Bartholomew Telegram’. Menon, Anand, Forster, Anthony and Wallace, William, ‘A Common European Defence?’, Survival , 34, 3, 1992, pp. 98118.Google Scholar

39. Interview, Rome, 30 May 2003b and with Gianni De Michelis, Venice, 8 January, 2004.Google Scholar

40. Jopp, , ‘The Strategic Implications’; Menon, , Forster, and Wallace, , ‘A Common European’; Moravcsik, Andrew, The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht , Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1998.Google Scholar

41. The Irish, because of their neutrality, were close to this position.Google Scholar

42. The Commission supported the views of this group. Jopp, , ‘The Strategic Implications’, p. 8.Google Scholar

43. Moravcsik, , The Choice for Europe , p. 384, table 6.2.Google Scholar

44. Jopp, , ‘The Strategic Implications’, p. 8.Google Scholar

45. Interview, Rome, 30 May 2003b.Google Scholar

46. Interview with Gianni De Michelis, Venice, 8 January 2004.Google Scholar

47. ‘The common foreign and security policy shall include all questions related to the security of the European Union, including the eventual framing of a common defence policy, which might in time lead to a common defence’, Art. J.4.1, TEU.Google Scholar

48. ‘Declaration on the Western European Union’, attached to the TEU.Google Scholar

49. Interview, Rome, 30 May 2003b.Google Scholar

50. Ibid. Google Scholar

51. Ibid. Google Scholar

52. Interview, Rome, 30 May, 2003b. For a contrasting view, see: De La Serre, François, ‘France: The Impact of François Mitterrand’, in Hill, The Actors in Europe's Foreign Policy, pp. 19–39.Google Scholar

53. The document is reproduced in Rummel, , Toward Political Union, Annex 6, pp. 353–7.Google Scholar

54. For Germany's position, see Anderson, Jeffrey and Goodman, John B., ‘Mars or Minerva? A United Germany in a Post-Cold War Europe’, in Keohane, Robert, Nye, Joseph J. and Hoffmann, Stanley (eds), After the Cold War: International Institutions and State Strategies in Europe , Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1993, pp. 2362; and Rummel, R., ‘Germany's Role in CFSP: “Normalität” or “Sonderweg”?’, in Hill, The Actors in Europe's Foreign Policy, pp. 40–67.Google Scholar

55. In October 1991, the French and German governments decided to expand the existing Franco-German brigade into a corps. According to Paris, this would form the embryo of a European Army.Google Scholar

56. Interview, Berlin, 5 November 2003 and with De Michelis, Gianni, Venice, 8 January 2004.Google Scholar

57. Interview, Rome, 30 May 2003b.Google Scholar

58. Comunicazioni del ministro degli Esteri in vista del Consiglio Europeo di Helsinki , Senato della Repubblica, 2 December 1999.Google Scholar

59. The declaration aimed to ‘to set criteria for improved and strengthened European defence capabilities and effective performance’, Joint Declaration Launching European Defence Capabilities Initiative , British–Italian Summit, London, 19–20 July. The text is reproduced in Maartje Rutten, ‘From Saint Malò to Nice. European Defence: Core Documents’, Chaillot Paper, 47, 2001, pp. 46–7.Google Scholar

60. The list of forces assigned to the ESDP by single members, which would have been decided at the Council of Ministers of Defence in November 2000, reversed the basis of the convergence criteria in that it was to be based on a voluntary contribution by individual governments according to existing military levels. See: Missiroli, A., ‘La difesa europea: istituzioni e politica militare’, in Bruni, Franco and Ronzitti, Natalino (eds), L'Italia e la politica internazionale , Il Mulino, Bologna, 2001, pp. 113–29, p. 124.Google Scholar

61. Cohen, Michael D., March, James and Olsen, Joan P., ‘Persone, problemi, soluzioni e l'ambiguità dell'attinenza’, in Zan, Stefano (ed.), Logiche di azione organizzativa , Il Mulino, Bologna, 1988, pp. 318–34; Kingdon, , Agendas, Alternatives. Google Scholar

62. It echoed the age-old debate within the Atlantic Alliance on burden-sharing and the commitment by members to maintain defence spending above a certain level.Google Scholar

63. Interview, Rome, 6 June 2003.Google Scholar

64. Missiroli, A., ‘La difesa europea’, p.124.Google Scholar

65. Santoro, Carlo M. (ed.), L'elmo di Scipio: studi sul modello di difesa italiano , Il Mulino, Bologna, 1992.Google Scholar

66. Interview, Rome, 6 June 2003.Google Scholar

67. An important role was played by the friendly personal relations between the Italian Defence Minister, Carlo Scognamiglio and his British counterpart, George Robertson. Interview with former Defence Minister Carlo Scognamiglio, Rome, 8 October 2003.Google Scholar

68. Interview, Rome, 30 May 2003a.Google Scholar

68. Ibid. Google Scholar

70. Gaja, Roberto, L'Italia nel mondo bipolare , Il Mulino, Bologna, 1995.Google Scholar

71. Interviews, Rome, 30 May 2003a, 6 June 2003, 17 June 2003. During the UK–French summit at St Malò (December 1998), British prime minister Tony Blair supported for the first time the development of an autonomous European Defence policy.Google Scholar

72. Interview, Rome, 17 June 2003.Google Scholar

73. Interview with Carlo Scognamiglio, Rome, 8 October 2003 Google Scholar

74. The Italian defence budget includes a series of expenditures that are not strictly related to the ‘defence function’.Google Scholar

75. The figures refer to 1999 and they did not change in successive years. della Difesa, Ministero, Nota aggiuntiva allo stato di previsione per la Difesa per l'anno 2002 , parte I allegato B.Google Scholar

76. Interview with Carlo Scognamiglio, Rome, 8 October 2003.Google Scholar

77. Interview, Rome, 6 June 2003.Google Scholar

78. Interview, Rome, 30 May 2003a.Google Scholar

79. The Military Policy Office conducts the ‘foreign policy’ of the Ministry of Defence. Dottori, and Laporta, , ‘La definizione e la rappresentanza degli interessi’, p. 124.Google Scholar

80. Interview, Rome, 17 June 2003.Google Scholar

81. Interviews, Rome, 30 May 2003a, 17 June 2003.Google Scholar

82. This what Holmes contends in ‘La politica estera italiana’, p.195: ‘But what would happen if, because of the democratization of the system, foreign policy would become a subject of political debate? Italy would cease to be simply a predictable uncertainty. Foreign negotiators could no longer be so sure of the willingness to surrender of Italian ministers and officials.’ Google Scholar

83. The attention of political parties and public opinion was focused more on the Anglo-Italian document on the welfare state. Interview, Rome, 6 June 2003.Google Scholar

84. See Eurobarometer surveys.Google Scholar

85. Interview, Rome, 30 May 2003a.Google Scholar

86. Sloan, Stanley R., ‘The United States and European Defence’, Chaillot Paper , 39, April 2000; Kupchan, Charles A., ‘In Defence of European Defence: An American Perspective’, Survival, 42, 2, 2000, pp. 16–32.Google Scholar

87. Albright's article is reproduced in: Rutten, ‘From Saint Malò’.Google Scholar

88. Reproduced in: Rutten, , ‘From Saint Malò’.Google Scholar

89. Interview, Rome, 17 June 2003 and interview with Carlo Scognamiglio, Rome, 8 October 2003.Google Scholar

90. Interview with Carlo Scognamiglio, Rome, 8 October 2003.Google Scholar

91. Jopp, Mathias, ‘European Defence Policy: The Debate on the Institutional Aspects’, Institut für Europäische Politik, dok 11/b, 1999; Howorth, Joylon, ‘European Integration and Defence: The Ultimate Challenge?’, Chaillot Paper, 43, November 2000.Google Scholar

92. Howorth, Joylon, ‘Britain, France and European Defence Initiative’, Survival , 42, 2, 2000, pp. 3355.Google Scholar

93. Maull, Hanns W., ‘Germany and the Use of Force: Still a Civilian Power?’, Survival , 42, 2, 2000, pp. 5680.Google Scholar

94. Boll. UE 6-1999, punto I.58.5.Google Scholar

95. Ammendola, Teresa and Isernia, Pierangelo, ‘Continuità e cambiamento nella politica estera italiana’, in Di Palma, Giuseppe, Fabbrini, Sergio and Freddi, Giorgio (eds), Condannata al successo? L'Italia nell'Europa integrata , Il Mulino, Bologna, 2000 pp. 365400.Google Scholar

96. Interview, Rome, 17 June 2003.Google Scholar

97. Interview with Carlo Scognamiglio, Rome, 8 October 2003. The German red–green government did not intend to raise military spending, which had been in constant decline for years. In August 1999, the German Defence Minister was forced to accept another cut of 3.5 billion Deutschemarks. Maull, ‘Germany and the Use of Force’, pp. 56–80.Google Scholar

98. Interview, Rome, 17 June 2003.Google Scholar

99. Interview with Carlo Scognamiglio, Rome, 8 October 2003.Google Scholar

100. Interview, Rome, 30 May 2003a.Google Scholar

101. Ibid. Google Scholar

102. Interview, Rome, 17 June 2003.Google Scholar

103. Interview, Rome, 30 May 2003a.Google Scholar

104. At the meeting on November 29, in preparation for the Helsinki European Council, ECOFIN reaffirmed the importance of healthy public finances and keeping budgets under control (Boll. UE 11-1999, punto 1.3.1).Google Scholar

105. The willingness of Italian political leaders to remove this issue from domestic political debate during the Cold War was one of the reasons for its low profile. Panebianco, Angelo, ‘Le cause interne del basso profilo’, Politica internazionale , 10, 1982, pp. 1521.Google Scholar

106. Posner, Alan R., ‘Italy: Dependence and Policy Fragmentation’, International Organization , 31, 1977, pp. 809–36.Google Scholar

107. Ibid. Google Scholar

108. Ibid. Google Scholar