Italy and Arms Control: Identity Dilemmas

The article analyses the evolution of Italy's foreign policy on the most important multilateral treaties in the field of arms control, their proliferation and disarmament. The formulation of Italy's position on these international security issues has been determined by two factors. First, it is influenced by a certain dichotomy between Italy's two identities as a member of the European Union and that of NATO. Second, Italy's policy in the field of arms control is closely dependent on the ideology of political parties forming coalition governments, whose task is to bring different, and sometimes diametrically opposed, party positions to a common denominator. In turn, both factors are dialectically linked to the dynamics of international relations. The combination of these factors played an important role in Italy's accession to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1975, even though the country was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Having made a choice in favor of combating the proliferation of the nuclear threat, Italy joined the second most important multilateral Treaty - the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, as did all EU Member-States. At the same time, in the field of disarmament, the Italian leadership has always followed in the wake of US/NATO policy. This predetermined Italy's position on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (NPNW), accession to which would require the withdrawal of American tactical weapons from two Italian bases. The return of hard power to international relations in the third decade of the 21st century, in the context of the crisis the Russia-West relations and Euro-Atlantic partnership, has revived the discussion in the European Union about its security guarantees.