The Trieste Negotiations (F P I Case Studies)

This case describes the complex, secret negotiations between the United States, Great Britain, Yugoslavia, and Italy to resolve the status of the port city of Trieste after World War II. Once a thriving entrepot of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Trieste and its hinterland became the focus of bitter conflict between Italy and the newly formed state of Yugoslavia after the collapse of Austro-Hungary. Italy asserted control over the region after World War I, but Josip Broz Tito’s Yugoslav partisan movement reopened the question by retaking much of the disputed territory near the end of the Second World War. The narrative traces the course of the ensuing negotiations from the unsatisfactory compromises written into the 1947 Italian Peace Treaty.