Italian Foreign Policy during Matteo Renzi's Government

Jason Davidson is professor of political science and international affairs at the University of Mary Washington.Fabrizio Coticchia is assistant professor of political science at the University of Genova.

• Chapter One: Explaining Renzi’s Foreign Policy: A Domestically Focused Outsider and the WorldChapter Two: MigrationChapter Three: The European Union: Austerity and BanksChapter Four: Russia/UkraineChapter Five: The fight against ISILChapter Six: LibyaChapter Seven: Conclusion

Italy’s coalition of the populist Five Star Movement and the xenophobic (formerly Northern) League shocked the world with its reorientation of Italian foreign policy. The new government rejected the European Union’s economic austerity, cozied up to Vladiminr Putin’s Russia, and sounded the alarm about an influx of migrants and refugees. Yet, as the authors of this trenchant study argue, the building blocks for the new policy were put in place already during Matteo Renzi’s term as prime minister. Promoting personality above party and running as an anti-establishment outsider preoccupied with domestic politics, Renzi unintentionally contributed to the destruction of the mainstream parties and opened the way to populist challengers who pursued many of the same foreign policies. Drawing on a wealth of evidence, including informative interviews with high-level Italian and international officials and experts, the authors make a convincing case that Renzi’s model of a “domestically focused outsider” applies not only to his successors but to politicians as otherwise different as Yanis Varoufakis and Donald Trump.