Italian military operations abroad: Just don't call it war

Peace support operations have become one of the most important tools in the foreign policy of Western democracies. This volume is a study of the military operations of a medium-size democracy (in this case Italy) in the last twenty years. The volume examines Italy's military operations through analysis of parliamentary debates and interviews with leading policy-makers from the time of the various missions abroad. The book presents a profile of Italy's long-term foreign and defence policy by applying a constructivist approach. It analyses the political culture of the MPs and top decision-makers in foreign and defence policy and compares their cultural frameworks with conditions of actual military deployment in the field. It also includes a broad discussion of Italy's military doctrine since the end of the Cold War.