Britain, Italy and the Origins of the Cold War (Cold War History)

Senior Lecturer in War Studies, King's College, London The new Cold War History Series aims to make available to scholars and students the results of advanced research on the origins and the development of the Cold War and its impact on nations, alliances and regions at various levels of statecraft, and in areas such as diplomacy, security, economy, the military and society. Volumes in the series range from detailed and original specialised studies, proceedings of conferences, to broader and more comprehensive accounts. Each work deals with individual themes and periods of the Cold War and each author or editor approaches the Cold War with a variety of narrative, analysis, explanation, interpretation and reassessments of recent scholarship. These studies are designed to encourage investigation and debate on important themes and events in the Cold War, as seen from both East and West, in an effort to deepen our understanding of this phenomenon and place it in its context in world history. Italy was the first major European nation to undergo reconstruction by the Western Allies after 1943. It was to serve as the subject of a massive experiment for trying out and implementing ideas about national reconstruction and nation building and in time it was to become a prototype for similar intervention around the world during the Cold War and post Cold War periods. In this volume, the British Labour government's contribution to the postwar reconstruction of Italy and its responses to the issues of war criminality punishment, the reconstruction of the Italian armed forces, Italy's institutional role in western security arrangements and on European integrative bodies are analysed. British policy towards Italy during this period was not determined by a British punitive attitudes towards a defeated enemy nor was it based exclusively on power politics concerns, the desire to frustrate the designs of the Soviet Union and the PCI, and the challenge of Growing American influence in Italy. It had a moral and ideological underpinning as well. This was to provide Italy with an alternative model of political, economic and social development to that preferred by the USA, one that was based on the principles of social democracy. As such it offers valuable insights in the aims and pitfalls of nation building Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction....Pages 1-8 Britain and the Prosecution of Italian War Criminals....Pages 9-34 The Reconstruction of the Postwar Italian Armed Forces....Pages 35-57 The ‘British Way to Socialism’: British Intervention in the Italian Election of April 1948 and its Aftermath....Pages 58-95 The North Atlantic Alliance: Britain and the Issue of Italian Membership....Pages 96-127 Britain, Italy and European Cooperation in the 1940s....Pages 128-156 Conclusion....Pages 157-161 Back Matter....Pages 162-239 Annotation Effie G.H. Pedaliu analyzes the British Labour government's contribution to the postwar reconstruction of Italy. The book focuses on five areas: the punishment of war criminality; the reconstruction of the Italian armed forces; the Italian elections of April 1948 and Italy's institutional role in western security arrangements and on European integrative bodies. It reveals that British policy towards Italy was underpinned not only by power politics but also by moral and ideological considerations