Between old-style nationalism and political realism: Italy's diplomatic resistance to the process of European integration between 1945 and 1957

From the beginning of the European integration process, the attitude of the Italian ruling class towards it was not uniform. If the emergence of the East-West opposition had inevitable consequences on the attitude of political parties, the internal differences in diplomacy are less obvious. Diplomacy is a segment of the ruling class and as a technical body has the task of evaluating, through a hard work of analysis, the practicability and also the opportunity of a foreign policy line that looks to the national interest. When looking at the attitude of Italian diplomacy in the immediate postwar period, it is necessary to consider the criticisms for its involvement in the foreign policy of fascism, which initially had the effect of partially excluding it from the decision-making process. In the aftermath of the end of the war, skepticism was still alive in Italian diplomatic circles regarding attempts to bring out a "homogeneously democratic" Europe through peace treaties. The attitude changes with the approach of the peace treaty, when a "revisionist" awareness of the clauses of the “diktat” matures, but resistance and skepticism remain, between nationalist reminiscences and political realism .