Italian Foreign Policy during Matteo Renzi's Government: A Domestically Focused Outsider and the World [Hardcover]

This book sets out to explain the foreign policy of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi (February 2014 to December 2016). It offers a unique analytical framework to make sense of Renzis foreign policy: the domestically-focused outsider. It argues that to untangle Renzis foreign policy one must first understand that his clear priority was enacting domestic economic and political reforms. Domestic focus means that Renzi made foreign policy decisions with a sensitivity to public opinion and party unity. The book also argues that Renzis status as an outsider in Italian politicshaving previously served only as the mayor of Florenceprovides critical insight into his foreign policy. Renzi was prone to skepticism of the establishment and dramatic, symbolic gestures rather than patient coalition building. The book applies this framework to the five most important foreign policy issues Renzis government faced: migration, finance and the EU, Russia, ISIL, and Libya. The books analysis of the cases benefits from over twenty elite interviews, including those with senior members of Renzis 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.

Italys 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 Unions economic austerity, cozied up to Vladiminr Putins 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 Renzis term as prime minister. Promoting personality above party and running as an anti-establishment outsider preoccupied with domestic politics, Renzi unintentionally contributed to the destrucl"