Blog Posts - Fabrizio Coticchia

"A Watershed Moment? European Defence and the War in Ukraine”

11/17/2022

"A Watershed Moment? European Defence and the War in Ukraine” (2022). . I'm glad to have published this paper in the ISPI Report (edited by S.Giusti and G.Grevi) “Facing War: Rethinking Europe’s Security and Defence”. You can download the report here.

"The government of change? Migration and defence policy under Giuseppe Conte’s first cabinet"

8/7/2022

Glad to see my latest paper (with M.Ceccorulli and S.Gianfreda) published on Contemporary Italian Politics. The paper focuses on (populist) political parties and foreign policy change in Italy. The abstract of the manuscript (titled: The government of change? Migration and defence policy under Giuseppe Conte’s first cabinet) is here below:

In 2018, a fully populist government, without any mainstream parties, was formed in Italy. Some authors expected to see a considerable degree of policy change, while others predicted a limited – and mainly symbolic – transformation. However, few studies have investigated the impact of the new government on migration and on defence policy. To what extent did the ‘Yellow-Green’ government foster policy change with respect to traditional approaches in these policy domains? This article aims to gauge the extent of policy change in the fields of migration and defence under Giuseppe Conte’s (first) cabinet (June 2018-August 2019). Relying upon secondary and primary sources (semi-structured interviews with ministers, MPs, diplomats, experts, etc.), we contribute to the literature on the impact of populist parties on migration and defence policies once in office, advancing the hypothesis of a ‘salience-constraints’ balance.

"La politica di difesa italiana nel nuovo quadro europeo"

6/9/2022

Nel nuovo numero della rivista trimestrale "Il Mulino" (2/2022, "L'Italia nella bufera") ho scritto un articolo, con Hugo Meijer, dal titolo: "La politica di difesa italiana nel nuovo quadro europeo".

"An International Peacekeeper. The Evolution of Italian Foreign and Defence Policy"

4/23/2022

Really glad to have published this paper (with A.Ruggeri) for the "Osservatorio IAI-ISPI sulla Politica Estera italiana". The paper ("An International Peacekeeper. The evolution of Italian Foreign and Defence Policy" is available at this link. Here below the abstract:
After the Cold War, Italy started to act as an international peacekeeper, deploying troops in dozens of military operations, mainly within multilateral frameworks. Recently, with the end of the “war on terror” and after the 2015 White Paper, Italy devoted growing interest and resources to the “Enlarged Mediterranean”. Despite Italy’s post-bipolar military dynamism, limited attention has been paid to assessing missions. The withdrawal from Afghanistan, as well as the debate about European Union defence and NATO, particularly after the Russian aggression on Ukraine, have emphasised again the need for a detailed analysis of Italian operations. This paper discusses the effectiveness of international interventions and the features and the trajectory of Italian missions. Three policy recommendations are advanced: the need to 1) create standard and systematic evaluations as events proceed; 2) establish transparent and inclusive assessments when interventions are completed; and 3) plan strategically for long-term proactivity rather than short-term reactivity.

"Italy’s Military Operations Abroad (1945–2020): Data, Patterns, and Trends" - International Peacekeeping (2022)

3/19/2022

"Italy’s Military Operations Abroad (1945–2020): Data, Patterns, and Trends". My latest paper (with V.Vignoli) has been published on International Peacekeeping. Here the link to the manuscript.
Here below the abstract:
A significant engagement in military missions is probably the most distinctive feature of post-Cold War Italian foreign policy. In the last three decades, Italy has participated in an extensive number of operations across the world, including those in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. Several studies have described Italian troop deployments abroad, providing alternative explanations of the Italian military activism. However, despite a recent growing attention on the topic, mainly focusing on specific peacekeeping operations, a comprehensive investigation of the evolution of Italian interventions is still missing. In other words, a detailed picture of main trends, data and patterns – since the end of the Second World War – is lacking. This article aims to fill this gap, using the most detailed and complete data on Italy’s participation in peace and security operations to date. We show that Italian involvement steadily grew between 1990 and 2010 and decreased in the following ten years. Our empirical findings also indicate how Italy’s efforts were increasingly directed in the Mediterranean and North Africa region in recent years. The article contributes to the existing literature on military operations abroad by offering a broad quantitative perspective on the post-Cold War defence policy of a ‘middle power’.