Least of the great powers

Last updated

"Least of the great powers" is a label used to conceptualize Italy's international status as a great power. [1] [2] [3] [4] This concept originated with the unification of the country in the late 19th century, when Italy was admitted in the concert of powers. Nowadays, Italy is also part of great power concerts such as the EU trio, the NATO Quint, the G7 and various International Contact Groups. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] Italy is also one of the world's largest economies, one of the UN's and the EU's major funders, the leading nation of the Uniting for Consensus, and serves as one of the UN states of chief importance in providing shipping services, [11] air transport, and industrial development. Alternative terms used by academics to describe Italy's role in global affairs include "awkward great power", "intermittent major power", and "small great power". [12] [13] [14]

Contents

Strengths and weaknesses

Italy's great power strength includes a vast advanced economy [15] [16] (in terms of national wealth, net wealth per capita and national GDP), a strong manufacturing industry (ranking 7th on the list of countries by manufacturing output), [17] a large luxury goods market, [18] a large national budget and the third largest gold reserve in the world. It has one of the largest SDRs and Voting Power in the IMF. [19] The country is a cultural superpower [20] and it has close ties with the rest of the Catholic world as the home of the Pope. Italy is a key player in maintaining international security, especially in the wider Mediterranean region, [note 1] by performing air policing duties for its allies and commanding multinational forces in foreign countries. The country has therefore developed considerable military capabilities by building two aircraft carriers and establishing some overseas military bases. The Italian navy was the first to launch an intermediate-range ballistic missile from the sea, an UGM-27 Polaris launched from the cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi . The country is home to two nuclear bases and, as part of the NATO nuclear sharing program, therefore has a retaliatory nuclear capacity despite nominally being a non-nuclear state. According to the former Italian President Francesco Cossiga, Italy's plans of nuclear retaliation during the Cold War consisted of targeting nuclear weapons in Czechoslovakia and Hungary in case the Soviet Union waged nuclear war against NATO. [21] He acknowledged the presence of U.S. nuclear weapons in Italy, and speculated about the possible presence of British and French nuclear weapons. [22] Italy secretly developed its own nuclear weapons program, and one in collaboration with France and Germany, but abandoned such projects when it joined the nuclear sharing program. [23] [24] The country has developed the ABM PAAMS system. [25] It has developed several space-launch vehicles such as Alfa and more recently Vega. In more recent years, under the auspices of European space agency, it has demonstrated the reentry and landing of a spacecraft, the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle. Italy is home of one of two ground operations centres of the Galileo global satellite navigation system.

Italy contributes greatly to scientific research [ citation needed ] and operates some permanent research stations in Antarctica. In terms of spaceflight capability, the country owns the Broglio Space Centre. The country is a major contributor to the European Space Agency and the International Space Station.

Italy's weakness and structural problems include internal political instability, a large public debt, [26] a diminishing economic productivity, [26] low economic growth, [27] especially in the last ten years, and a significant Centre-North/South socio-economic divide. [28]

Overview

Major powers plan to cut up China for themselves; United States, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Russia, and Austria are represented by Wilhelm II, Umberto I, John Bull, Franz Joseph I (in rear), Uncle Sam, Nicholas II, and Emile Loubet. Punch Aug 23, 1899, by J. S. Pughe Putting his foot down.jpg
Major powers plan to cut up China for themselves; United States, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Russia, and Austria are represented by Wilhelm II, Umberto I, John Bull, Franz Joseph I (in rear), Uncle Sam, Nicholas II, and Emile Loubet. Punch Aug 23, 1899, by J. S. Pughe
The stages of Italian unification during 1829-71 Italian-unification.gif
The stages of Italian unification during 1829–71

Following the Risorgimento, the newly united Italy was recognized as the "sixth great power" by Austria, Prussia, France, Russia and the British Empire. [29] Italians achieved unification following a series of wars against Austria and the House of Bourbon, securing national unification in 1861; Rome became the country's capital in 1871, following the capture of the city a year before. [30] [31] [32] The same year Italy was admitted into the concert of great powers as a signatory of the Treaty of London (1871). In 1882, Italy formed the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria. In the same year, the coastal town of Assab on the Red Sea was taken over by the Italian government, becoming Italy's first overseas territory.

Italy defeated the Ottoman Empire in 1911–1912. [33] By 1914, Italy had acquired Eritrea, a large protectorate in Somalia and administrative authority in formerly Turkish Libya. Outside of Africa, Italy possessed a small concession in Tientsin in China (following the intervention of the Eight-Nation Alliance in the Boxer Rebellion) and the Dodecanese Islands off the coast of Turkey.

Austria took the offensive against the terms of the alliance and Italy decided to take part in World War I as a principal allied power with France, the UK and Japan. During the First World War, Italy occupied southern Albania to prevent it from falling to Austria-Hungary. In 1917, it established a protectorate over Albania, which remained in place until 1920. [34] Italy defeated the Austrian Empire at Vittorio Veneto in 1918 and became one of the permanent members of the League of Nations' executive council.

The "Big Four" of the World War I at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919: David Lloyd George, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson. Council of Four Versailles.jpg
The "Big Four" of the World War I at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919: David Lloyd George, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson.

The Fascist government that came to power with Benito Mussolini in 1922 sought to increase the size of the Italian empire and to satisfy the claims of Italian irredentists. In 1935–36, in its second invasion of Ethiopia Italy was successful and merged its new conquest with its older east African colonies. In 1939, Italy invaded Albania and incorporated it into the Fascist state. During World War II, Italy fought first as one of the Axis powers along with Germany and Japan (1940-1943) and, following the armistice signed with the Anglo-Americans and the subsequent German invasion with the emergence of the Italian resistance, as a co-belligerent of the Allies (1943-1945).

Following the civil war and the economic depression caused by World War II, Italy enjoyed an economic miracle, promoted European unity, joined NATO and became an active member of the European Union. [35] Italy was granted a United Nations trust to administer Somaliland in 1950. When Somalia became independent in 1960, Italy's eight-decade experience with colonialism ended.

For most of the second half of the 20th century, the Christian Democrats dominated the Italian political landscape pursuing a foreign policy aimed at strengthening East–West dialogue. As a consequence of that, Italy decided to build close relations with the Arab world and the USSR despite being part of the free world.

In 1962, Prime Minister Amintore Fanfani favoured the compromise between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis by removing the Jupiter ballistic missiles from Italian soil. In the 70s Foreign minister Aldo Moro signed a secret pact (known as the Lodo Moro) with the PLO, reversing the special status given to the Mossad of Israel by Alcide De Gasperi (the so-called Lodo De Gasperi).[ citation needed ]

David Cameron, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande and Matteo Renzi. Italy is the least great power of the "Quint". Obama, Cameron, Merkel, Hollande and Renzi at Herrenhausen Palace.jpg
David Cameron, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, François Hollande and Matteo Renzi. Italy is the least great power of the "Quint".

In the 80s, under the leadership of the socialist Bettino Craxi, Italy acted as an aggressive regional power in the Mediterranean. Craxi warned Gaddafi of the 1986 United States bombing of Libya, allowing him to survive the attack, and ordered the Italian intelligence services to plan a coup d'état in Tunisia supporting the instalment of Ben Ali as the new president of the country.

Giulio Andreotti was the last Christian democrat to serve as Prime Minister between 1989 and 1992. Despite being hostile to German reunification, he became one of the fathers of the Maastricht Treaty along with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President François Mitterrand, often in contrast with Margaret Thatcher.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The concept of Mediterraneo Allargato (Enlarged Mediterranean) includes the Horn of Africa, the Balkans and the MENA region

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Europe</span>

The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe, classical antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the modern era.

Superpower describes a sovereign state or supranational union that holds a dominant position characterized by the ability to exert influence and project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political, and cultural strength as well as diplomatic and soft power influence. Traditionally, superpowers are preeminent among the great powers. While a great power state is capable of exerting its influence globally, superpowers are states so influential that no significant action can be taken by the global community without first considering the positions of the superpowers on the issue.

In international relations, power is defined in several different ways. Material definitions of state power emphasize economic and military power. Other definitions of power emphasize the ability to structure and constitute the nature of social relations between actors. Power is an attribute of particular actors in their interactions, as well as a social process that constitutes the social identities and capacities of actors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Concert of Europe</span> European balance of power in the 19th century

The Concert of Europe was a general agreement among the great powers of 19th-century Europe to maintain the European balance of power, political boundaries, and spheres of influence. Never a perfect unity and subject to disputes and jockeying for position and influence, the Concert was an extended period of relative peace and stability in Europe following the Wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars which had consumed the continent since the 1790s. There is considerable scholarly dispute over the exact nature and duration of the Concert. Some scholars argue that it fell apart nearly as soon as it began in the 1820s when the great powers disagreed over the handling of liberal revolts in Italy, while others argue that it lasted until the outbreak of World War I and others for points in between. For those arguing for a longer duration, there is generally agreement that the period after the Revolutions of 1848 and the Crimean War (1853–1856) represented a different phase with different dynamics than the earlier period.

The events preceding World War II in Europe are closely tied to the bellicosity of Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Francoist Spain, Imperial Japan, and the Soviet Union, as well as the Great Depression. The peace movement led to appeasement and disarmament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great power</span> Nation that has great political, social, and economic influence on a global scale

A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power influence, which may cause middle or small powers to consider the great powers' opinions before taking actions of their own. International relations theorists have posited that great power status can be characterized into power capabilities, spatial aspects, and status dimensions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle power</span> Type of state

A middle power is a state that is not a superpower or a great power, but still exerts influence and plays a significant role in international relations. These countries often possess certain capabilities, such as strong economies, advanced technologies, and diplomatic influence, that allow them to have a voice in global affairs. Middle powers are typically seen as bridge-builders between larger powers, using their diplomatic skills to mediate conflicts and promote cooperation on international issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regional power</span> State wielding power within a geographical region

In international relations, regional power, since the late 20th century has been used for a sovereign state that exercises significant power within its geographical region. States that wield unrivaled power and influence within a region of the world possess regional hegemony.

A buffer state is a country geographically lying between two rival or potentially hostile great powers. Its existence can sometimes be thought to prevent conflict between them. A buffer state is sometimes a mutually agreed upon area lying between two greater powers, which is demilitarised in the sense of not hosting the armed forces of either power. The invasion of a buffer state by one of the powers surrounding it will often result in war between the powers.

Collective security is a multi-lateral security arrangement between states in which each state in the institution accepts that an attack on one state is the concern of all and merits a collective response to threats by all. Collective security was a key principle underpinning the League of Nations and the United Nations. Collective security is more ambitious than systems of alliance security or collective defense in that it seeks to encompass the totality of states within a region or indeed globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingdom of Italy</span> Kingdom in Southern Europe from 1861 to 1946

The Kingdom of Italy was a state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy was abolished, following civil discontent that led to an institutional referendum on 2 June 1946. This resulted in a modern Italian Republic. The kingdom was established through the unification of several states over a decades-long process, called the Risorgimento. That process was influenced by the Savoy-led Kingdom of Sardinia, which was one of Italy's legal predecessor states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italy–United States relations</span> Bilateral relations

Italy and the United States enjoy warm and friendly relations. The United States has had diplomatic representation in the nation of Italy and its predecessor nation, the Kingdom of Italy, since 1840. However, in 1891 the Italian government severed diplomatic relations and briefly contemplated war against the US as a response to the unresolved case of the lynching of eleven Italians in New Orleans, Louisiana, and there was a break in relations from 1941 to 1943, while Italy and the United States were at war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austria–Germany relations</span> Bilateral relations

Relations between Austria and Germany are close due to their shared history and culture, with German being the official language and Germans being the major ethnic group of both countries.

The European balance of power is a tenet in international relations that no single power should be allowed to achieve hegemony over a substantial part of Europe. During much of the Modern Age, the balance was achieved by having a small number of ever-changing alliances contending for power, which culminated in the World Wars of the early 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Germany–Italy relations</span> Bilateral relations

Germany–Italy relations are the bilateral relations between Germany and Italy. Both countries are full members of the European Union, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and NATO. Germany has an embassy in Rome and consulates in Milan and Naples, while Italy has an embassy in Berlin and consulates in Frankfurt, Freiburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich, Nuremberg, Saarbrücken, and Stuttgart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">France–Italy relations</span> Bilateral relations

International relations between France and Italy occur on diplomatic, political, military, economic, and cultural levels, officially the Italian Republic, and its predecessors, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (1814–1861) and the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International relations (1814–1919)</span> Diplomacy and wars of six largest powers in the world

This article covers worldwide diplomacy and, more generally, the international relations of the great powers from 1814 to 1919. This era covers the period from the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815), to the end of the First World War and the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Four (Western Europe)</span> Refers to France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom

The Big Four, also known as G4, refers to France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. France and the United Kingdom are official nuclear-weapon states and are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power of veto, which enables any one of them to prevent the adoption of any "substantive" draft Council resolution, regardless of its level of international support. The United Kingdom is the only country of the Big Four which is not a member state of the European Union, having ended its membership in 2020, pursuant to a referendum held in 2016. France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom are considered major European economic powers and they are the Western European countries individually represented as full members of the G7 and the G20. They have been referred to as the "Big Four of Europe" since the interwar period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italian nuclear weapons program</span> Nuclear weapons program of Italy

The Italian nuclear weapons program was an effort by Italy to develop nuclear weapons in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Italian scientists such as Enrico Fermi and Edoardo Amaldi had been at the forefront of the development of the technology behind nuclear weapons, but the country was banned from developing the technology at the end of the Second World War.

References

  1. ↑ Tiersky, Ronald; Jones, Erik (12 June 2014). Europe Today: A Twenty-first Century Introduction. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN   9781442221116 . Retrieved 10 March 2022– via Google Books.
  2. ↑ Jones, Erik; Pasquino, Gianfranco (5 November 2015). The Oxford Handbook of Italian Politics. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-164850-2 . Retrieved 10 March 2022– via Google Books.
  3. ↑ Foot, John (7 May 2014). Modern Italy. Macmillan International Higher Education. ISBN   9781137041920 . Retrieved 10 March 2022– via Google Books.
  4. ↑ Beretta, Silvio; Berkofsky, Axel; Rugge, Fabio (1 July 2014). Italy and Japan: How Similar Are They?: A Comparative Analysis of Politics, Economics, and International Relations. Springer. ISBN   9788847025684 . Retrieved 10 March 2022– via Google Books.
  5. ↑ Canada Among Nations, 2004: Setting Priorities Straight. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. 17 January 2005. p. 85. ISBN   0773528369 . Retrieved 13 June 2016. ("The United States is the sole world's superpower. France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom are great powers")
  6. ↑ Sterio, Milena (2013). The right to self-determination under international law : "selfistans", secession and the rule of the great powers. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. xii (preface). ISBN   978-0415668187 . Retrieved 13 June 2016. ("The great powers are super-sovereign states: an exclusive club of the most powerful states economically, militarily, politically and strategically. These states include veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council (United States, United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia), as well as economic powerhouses such as Germany, Italy and Japan.")
  7. ↑ Transforming Military Power since the Cold War: Britain, France, and the United States, 1991–2012. Cambridge University Press. 2013. p. 224. ISBN   978-1107471498 . Retrieved 13 June 2016. (During the Kosovo War (1998) "...Contact Group consisting of six great powers (the United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and Italy).")
  8. ↑ Why are Pivot States so Pivotal? The Role of Pivot States in Regional and Global Security. Netherlands: The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. 2014. p. Table on page 10 (Great Power criteria). Archived from the original on 11 October 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  9. ↑ Carter, Keith Lambert (2019). Great Power, Arms, And Alliances . Retrieved 25 January 2021. U.S., Russia, China, France, Germany, U.K. and Italy - Table on page 56,72 (Major powers-great power criteria)
  10. ↑ Kuper, Stephen. "Clarifying the nation's role strengthens the impact of a National Security Strategy 2019". Archived from the original on 10 December 2021. Retrieved 22 January 2020. Traditionally, great powers have been defined by their global reach and ability to direct the flow of international affairs. There are a number of recognised great powers within the context of contemporary international relations – with Great Britain, France, India and Russia recognised as nuclear capable great powers, while Germany, Italy and Japan are identified as conventional great powers
  11. ↑ "Italy re-elected to IMO Council". Archived from the original on 2017-03-20. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  12. ↑ Gabriele Abbondanza; Thomas Wilkins, eds. (2021). Awkward Powers: Escaping Traditional Great and Middle Power Theory. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   978-981-16-0369-3 . Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  13. ↑ Jones, Bruce D. (2014-03-17). Still Ours to Lead: America, Rising Powers, and the Tension between Rivalry and Restraint. Brookings Institution Press. ISBN   9780815725138.
  14. ↑ Italy: 150 years of a small great power, eurasia-rivista.org, 21 December 2010
  15. ↑ Jones, Bruce D. (2014-03-17). Still Ours to Lead: America, Rising Powers, and the Tension between Rivalry and Restraint. Brookings Institution Press. ISBN   9780815725138.
  16. ↑ "The global economic balance of power is shifting". Weforum.org.
  17. ↑ "Manufacturing statistics". Eurostat. November 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  18. ↑ "Italy remains the third market for luxury goods". S24ore.it. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  19. ↑ Andre Melville, Yuri Polunin, Mikhail Ilyin (2011). Political atlas of the Modern World
  20. ↑ "Cultural Influence rankings". USnews. 2021. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  21. ↑ "Anche l'Italia coinvolta nel riarmo nucleare da noi settanta testate". Ricera.repubblica.it. 17 January 2018.
  22. ↑ "Cossiga: "In Italia ci sono bombe atomiche Usa"" (in Italian). Tiscali. Archived from the original on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  23. ↑ "SEDUTA POMERIDIANA DI GIOVEDÌ 23 GENNAIO 1969" (PDF). Legislature.camera.it. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  24. ↑ Baracca, Angelo (2005). A volte ritornano: Il nucleare : La proliferazione nucleare ieri, oggi e soprattutto domani. Editoriale Jaca Book. ISBN   9788816407107.
  25. ↑ "Eurosam". MBDA. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  26. 1 2 Holtemöller, Oliver; Knedlik, Tobias; Lindner, Axel (2018). "On the Risk of a Sovereign Debt Crisis in Italy". Intereconomics. 2018 (6): 316–319. doi:10.1007/s10272-018-0775-y. hdl: 10419/213187 . S2CID   158807558.
  27. ↑ "Why Italy's Economy Stopped Growing". www.newswise.com. 2021-05-26.
  28. ↑ Xiong, Zhenyi (2022-11-06). "The North and South Divide: A Drag on the Italian Economy". Highlights in Business, Economics and Management. 2: 219–226. doi: 10.54097/hbem.v2i.2366 . ISSN   2957-952X.
  29. ↑ Toniolo, Gianni (14 October 2014). An Economic History of Liberal Italy (Routledge Revivals): 1850-1918. Routledge. ISBN   9781317569541 . Retrieved 10 March 2022– via Google Books.
  30. ↑ Martin Collier, Italian Unification 1820–71 (2003)
  31. ↑ Taylor, Struggle for Mastery, pp. 99–125
  32. ↑ E.E.Y. Hales (1954). Pio Nono: A Study in European Politics and Religion in the Nineteenth Century. P.J. Kenedy & Sons.
  33. ↑ Charles Stevenson, A Box of Sand: The Italo-Ottoman War 1911–1912: The First Land, Sea and Air War (2014)
  34. ↑ Nigel Thomas. Armies in the Balkans 1914–18. Osprey Publishing, 2001, p. 17.
  35. ↑ Sara Lorenzini, "The roots of a 'statesman': De Gasperi's foreign policy," Modern Italy (2009) 14#4 pp. 473–484
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.