Italy Needs Russian Oil, Gas – and Courts Russians to Buy Its Luxury Goods

By Gianfranco Pasquino

Gianfranco Pasquino is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Bologna. He served three terms as Senator of the Italian Republica between 1983 and 1996. He was President of the Italian Society of Political Science from 2011-2013, and since 2005 he has been a fellow at the Accademia dei Lincei. He is formerly the editor of the bi-monthly journal Il Mulino and was among the founders of the Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica (1971). Among his many publications, he is the author of Partiti, istituzioni, democrazie (2014), Cittadini senza scettro: Le riforme sbagliate (2015), and L’Europa in trenta lezioni (2017). Pasquino graduated in Political Science from the University of Torino. He then specialized in Comparative Politics at the University of Florence and received an M.A. from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Gone are the times when the Italian Communist Party preserved its political and strategic autonomy when competing in domestic politics, while supporting the Soviet Union in international politics.

Firmly in the Western camp, all Italian governments over the past few decades were happy enough to be members of the two most important organizations: NATO and the European Union. Traditionally, however, no Italian government and no Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs played an especially active role. Membership in any international organization means, for most Italians, to be part of that organization, not necessarily to constantly take part in any of the activities of those organizations. Loyalty was the name of the game played by the Italians, not voice – that is, advocacy or dissent. Without questioning any choice, all subsequent (and there were many) Italian governments accepted and shared the decisions made within NATO and the European Union. More autonomy appeared only when dealing with the oil-producing countries of the Middle East.

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