Continuity and change in Italian foreign policy: the case of the international intervention in Libya

This article is a contribution to the academic debate concerning continuity and change in Italian foreign policy during the so-called Second Republic. After identifying the variables affecting continuity and change in foreign policy, this article focuses on one recent Italian foreign policy case, namely the intervention in Libya. It argues that the choices taken by the centre-right coalition government headed by Berlusconi were based on enduring national interests, values and principles, and as such largely transcended partisan political preferences. As a consequence, such choices are not different from those that a centre-left coalition would have made had it been in government rather than in opposition. The only difference lies in the discourse that would probably have been used to present and justify them publicly.