Least of the great powers

Italy's great power strength includes a vast advanced economy{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ev_pAgAAQBAJ&q=great+powers+US+Russia+China+Germany+France+Italy+UK+Japan&pg=PA47 |title = Still Ours to Lead: America, Rising Powers, and the Tension between Rivalry and Restraint|isbn = 9780815725138|last1 = Jones|first1 = Bruce D.|date = 2014-03-17| publisher=Brookings Institution Press }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/09/the-global-economic-balance-of-power-is-shifting|title = The global economic balance of power is shifting|website=Weforum.org}} (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),{{cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Manufacturing_statistics_-_NACE_Rev._2 |title=Manufacturing statistics |publisher=Eurostat |date=November 2015 |access-date=8 February 2015}} a large luxury goods market,{{Cite web|url=http://s24ore.it/2GuYkA|title=Italy remains the third market for luxury goods|website=S24ore.it|access-date=10 March 2022}} 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.Andre Melville, Yuri Polunin, Mikhail Ilyin (2011). [https://books.google.com/books?id=Vnp2pOS5v9IC&q=%22major+powers%22+exertin+maximun+influence+on+the+International+Arena+&pg=PA202 Political atlas of the Modern World] The country is a cultural superpower{{cite web |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/influence-rankings|title=Cultural Influence rankings |publisher=USnews |date=2021 |access-date=2021-05-24}} 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,The concept of Mediterraneo Allargato (Enlarged Mediterranean) includes the Horn of Africa, the Balkans and the MENA region. 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.{{Cite web|url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2018/01/17/anche-litalia-coinvolta-nel-riarmo-nucleare-da-noi-settanta-testate14.html|title = Anche l'Italia coinvolta nel riarmo nucleare da noi settanta testate |website=Ricera.repubblica.it|date = 17 January 2018 }} He acknowledged the presence of U.S. nuclear weapons in Italy, and speculated about the possible presence of British and French nuclear weapons.{{cite web |url=http://notizie.tiscali.it/articoli/politica/08/22/cossiga_atomica_in_italia_123.html |title=Cossiga: "In Italia ci sono bombe atomiche Usa" |language=it |publisher=Tiscali |access-date=18 September 2015 |archive-date=28 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928225725/http://notizie.tiscali.it/articoli/politica/08/22/cossiga_atomica_in_italia_123.html |url-status=dead }}

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.{{cite web|url=http://legislature.camera.it/_dati/leg05/lavori/stenografici/sed0073/sed0073.pdf|title=SEDUTA POMERIDIANA DI GIOVEDÌ 23 GENNAIO 1969|website=Legislature.camera.it|access-date=10 March 2022}}{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dmUrPe1ZJ3MC&q=programma+nucleare+Italia-Francia-Germania&pg=PA122 | title=A volte ritornano: Il nucleare : La proliferazione nucleare ieri, oggi e soprattutto domani| isbn=9788816407107| last1=Baracca| first1=Angelo| year=2005| publisher=Editoriale Jaca Book}} The country has developed the ABM PAAMS system.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mbda-systems.com/about-us/mbda-worldwide/eurosam/|title=Eurosam|website=MBDA|access-date=10 March 2022}} 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|date=April 2020}} 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.

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Italy's weakness and structural problems include internal political instability, a large public debt,{{Cite journal |last1=Holtemöller |first1=Oliver |last2=Knedlik |first2=Tobias |last3=Lindner |first3=Axel |date=2018 |title=On the Risk of a Sovereign Debt Crisis in Italy |url=https://www.intereconomics.eu/contents/year/2018/number/6/article/on-the-risk-of-a-sovereign-debt-crisis-in-italy.html |journal=Intereconomics |language=en |volume=2018 |issue=6 |pages=316–319|doi=10.1007/s10272-018-0775-y |hdl=10419/213187 |s2cid=158807558 |hdl-access=free }} a diminishing economic productivity, low economic growth,{{Cite web |date=2021-05-26 |title=Why Italy's Economy Stopped Growing |url=https://www.newswise.com/articles/why-italy-s-economy-stopped-growing |website=www.newswise.com}} especially in the last ten years, and a significant Centre-North/South socio-economic divide.{{Cite journal |last=Xiong |first=Zhenyi |date=2022-11-06 |title=The North and South Divide: A Drag on the Italian Economy |journal=Highlights in Business, Economics and Management |volume=2 |pages=219–226 |doi=10.54097/hbem.v2i.2366 |issn=2957-952X|doi-access=free }}

{{See also|International relations (1814–1919)|Kingdom of Italy|}}

File:Putting his foot down.jpg]]

File:Italian-unification.gif 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.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wfvOBAAAQBAJ&dq=ITALY+SIXTH+GREAT+POWER+OF+EUROPE&pg=PA49|title=An Economic History of Liberal Italy (Routledge Revivals): 1850-1918|first=Gianni|last=Toniolo|date=14 October 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317569541|access-date=10 March 2022|via=Google Books}} 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.Martin Collier, Italian Unification 1820–71 (2003)Taylor, Struggle for Mastery, pp. 99–125{{cite book |title=Pio Nono: A Study in European Politics and Religion in the Nineteenth Century|url=https://archive.org/details/pionono001634mbp|author=E.E.Y. Hales|year=1954|publisher=P.J. Kenedy & Sons}} 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.Charles Stevenson, A Box of Sand: The Italo-Ottoman War 1911–1912: The First Land, Sea and Air War (2014) 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.Nigel Thomas. Armies in the Balkans 1914–18. Osprey Publishing, 2001, p. 17. Italy defeated the Austrian Empire at Vittorio Veneto in 1918 and became one of the permanent members of the League of Nations' executive council.

File:Council of Four Versailles.jpg 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.Sara Lorenzini, "The roots of a 'statesman': De Gasperi's foreign policy," Modern Italy (2009) 14#4 pp. 473–484 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|date=July 2023}}

File:Obama, Cameron, Merkel, Hollande and Renzi at Herrenhausen Palace.jpg, 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.

• Great Power
• Power (international relations)

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Category:19th-century establishments in Italy

Category:Modern history of Italy

Category:Power (international relations)