Italy and EPC

This book explores the domestic determinants of Italian policy towards European Political Cooperation (EPC) and the consequences of Italy’s relation to EPC up to the beginning of 2006. It uses three Mediterranean case studies revolving around different areas of cooperation. It is based on an extensive use of domestic parliamentary debates, an uncommon practice for this kind of analysis. It adapts and extends the methodological enquiry employed by Hill in his 1983 edited collection of national foreign policies and EPC. It widens and deepens the contribution made by Bonvicini to that collection. The most academically quoted works utilised as standard texts on Italy and its foreign policy (Bonvicini 1983, 1996; Francioni 1992; Savignoni 1996; Hill and Andreatta 1997, 2001; and Missiroli 2000) provide only a limited view of the interaction of the country’s position on EPC with Italian links to the Mediterranean. This interaction is particularly highlighted in the present book. Furthermore, the above contributions offer solely individual chapters, and not a full study of Italy’s relationship with EPC. This book will appeal to those engaged in political science, international relations and European studies.