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US – EUROPE ANALYSIS SERIES NUMBER 47 May 25, 2010 Assessing the New Course in U.S.-Italian Relations Emiliano Alessandri The visit of Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano a similar manner, giving the media another to Washington this week takes place at a time opportunity to comment on Berlusconi’s of overall stability in U.S.-Italian relations. peculiar interpretation of diplomatic etiquette. Cooperation between Rome and Washington on issues ranging from trade to counter- Despite these incidents, Obama’s realpolitik terrorism has remained strong after the new has enabled him to focus in a pragmatic U.S. administration assumed office in 2009. fashion on what Italy can contribute to Those who predicted an almost inevitable America’s new policies rather than on the clash of personalities or even ideologies sometimes unconventional habits of Italy’s between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and leaders. Rome promptly responded to President Barack Obama have been mostly Obama’s Afghanistan appeal with its own disappointed. Certainly, the two leaders are surge of close to 1,000 troops; demonstrated very different and there have been some greater generosity than other European diplomatic gaffes. Soon after the elections, countries in accepting detainees from Berlusconi sent Obama his very personal Guantanamo; and endorsed FIAT’s bailout of wishes, congratulating him for, among other Chrysler at perhaps the most vulnerable point things, his handsomeness and “suntan” – a in the new U.S. administration’s tenure last remark that the international press immediately summer. In light of these and other actions, labeled as racist. Pictures of Berlusconi President Obama has sufficient reason to throwing up his hands in an expression of consider Italy as a valuable ally. delight when greeted by a sleeve-less First Lady at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last This has created a curious situation. While the September, reverberated around the world in mood in several European capitals is one of disappointment with an American administration that has mainly concentrated its attention on domestic or extra-European issues, Emiliano Alessandri is a visiting fellow the feeling in Rome is closer to satisfaction. at CUSE specializing in transatlantic Italy, like other European countries, has relations, NATO’s transformation, struggled to get U.S. attention, but Rome has European security and Turkey’s perhaps had fewer disappointments than relationships with the EU and the U.S. London, Madrid, or Central and Eastern European capitals. As a fan of former President Bush and one of the very few European leaders US – EUROPE ANALYSIS SERIES NUMBER 47 1 to support John McCain in the 2008 presidential European capitals, including Rome, is to assess race, the Italian Prime Minister could hardly again the potential of a more national and have hoped for more from his relationship with independent foreign policy. In some instances, Washington. At a time of extreme polarization this has led to the strengthening of bilateral ties in Italian politics and growing criticism of his with countries both in Europe and beyond. leadership (which has created an ever larger These ties promise clear gains, at least in group of critics in Europe at large as well as in relative terms. In Italy this shift towards Italy), Berlusconi has at least neutralized the bilateralism has been noteworthy and additional challenge that would have come prominent especially under the governments of from a “cold” or even antagonistic U.S. the Center Right. For instance, Rome has tried administration. On occasion, thanks to his to re-activate a valuable and diverse network prompt alignment with new U.S. policies, of bilateral relationships long-cultivated in the Berlusconi has even been able to present Mediterranean and the Middle East, neglected himself and Italy as among the new U.S. during the bipolar world of the Cold War administration’s closest allies in Europe. U.S. except for a brief period in the 1950s and early During a recent trip to Rome, Assistant Attorney 1960s. For economic reasons––in particular General Lanny Breuer offered remarks on the those of energy security––Italy has also dangers of limiting wiretapping as a tool for consolidated ties with countries to the East and investigations (a measure the Italian Parliament South, such as Russia and Iran. is passing, in part, to assuage Berlusconi’s own private judicial concerns). Breuer’s remarks This growing bilateralization of Italian foreign were not received well by the Italian Prime policy has not come at the expense, at least Minister and his coalition. Nevertheless, for now, not fully, of more traditional multilateral this has been a fairly isolated case of engagement. Support for European integration interference (later smoothed over by has not been withdrawn. Like other European additional statements by the U.S. Embassy) and capitals, however, Rome has begun to regard has not signaled any reversal in the overall the European Union less strategically and more cordial and stable U.S.-Italian relationship. opportunistically. Some of Berlusconi’s coalition partners are openly Euro-skeptic or even Euro- New tendencies in Italian Foreign Policy phobic. Displaying a considerable amount of ambivalence, the Berlusconi governments Stability in relations, however, does not mean have invested in European institutions and absence of change. U.S.-Italian cooperation policies only selectively (to its credit, the during the Obama administration has Berlusconi government recently took a clear developed against a backdrop of great position on the EU’s responsibility for the international fluidity, which has also highlighted stabilization of Greece). In general, further new trends in European and transatlantic European integration has been supported only politics. New opportunities as well as new when it promised the consolidation of inter- questions have emerged, pushing U.S.-Italian governmental structures and practices that relations onto a new course. Rome could use to its own advantage. This is a notable change from Italy’s not-too-distant Like other European countries, in recent years past, when several of its leaders were ardent Italy seems to have embarked on a process of supporters of true European federalism. (The foreign policy “re-nationalization”, though this Italian Center Left has, for its part, adopted a label may be somewhat excessive. At a time much less ambivalent approach to the EU and when Europe and the West’s influence is in multilateralism in general, fully overcoming the decline and the European integration process skepticism that most Italian progressives remains uncertain, the temptation in several US – EUROPE ANALYSIS SERIES NUMBER 47 2 displayed until late in the Cold War for both European integration and Atlantic solidarity). During the bipolar era and its immediate aftermath, however, Italy was on America’s When it comes to NATO, Italy’s support has side in a different and more fundamental way remained strong, and its position has often than it is today. Italy consistently sought dovetailed with that of the United States. In the membership in the international organizations most recent instance, Italy did not join the that the U.S. created or sponsored in order to attempt by Germany and others to revise consolidate a broader Western order. Although NATO’s nuclear deterrence policy through the maintaining a standing of its own, the bilateral withdrawal of U.S. nuclear warheads from relationship was, to a large extent, the core of European sites (Italy hosts some of these in a larger system of relations that defined its military bases in the north). Italy’s close international strategy and limited Italy’s relationship with Moscow, strongly reinforced autonomy and the scope of its national by Berlusconi’s personal ties with Prime Minister ambitions. This dynamic is less active today. Vladimir Putin, has, at least for now, not interfered with U.S.-Italian cooperation in NATO. Italian governments of both the Center Right On the contrary, Berlusconi takes credit himself and the Center Left have been vocal about for the historic move by NATO and Russia at the need to strengthen the position of Europe Pratica di Mare in 2002 to establish the “NATO- and the West in today’s globalizing world. Russia Council”—which the Obama During the Bush administration, the Italian administration is now interested in government’s alignment with America was reinvigorating. Italy’s tepid stance on further firm, although realized through policies of NATO enlargement to Eastern Europe and the varying accordance, depending on the color Caucasus was certainly met with disagreement of the government. At the same time, however, in Washington during the Bush years but has Italian foreign policy gradually came to now become mainstream including in the incorporate a more independent set of aims United States. and priorities. The identification and definition of the latter seems to have increasingly less to U.S.-Italian Relations do with considerations about what Europe and the West mean - and Italy’s place within them - Moreover, the new trends in Italian foreign than with notions of an often only vaguely policy have not undermined U.S.-Italian defined Italian national interest. bilateral ties - at least not yet. On the contrary, in recent years, Italy has more fully For the time being, this more independent appreciated the strategic, political, and course of Italian foreign policy has notably economic value of this long-standing created more opportunities than tensions with relationship. Italy’s close and often deferential the United States. On the one hand, Italy has relations with Washington have been a key invested heavily in confirming its status as a and constant element of Italian foreign policy loyal ally in Washington on the premise that the since the end of World War II. Despite having relationship with the U.S. is by far the most one of Europe’s largest communist parties valuable.

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