Italy Must Go Forward Again
By Romano Prodi
Le Monde
Wednesday 12 April 2006
After experiencing a government brimming with media activity, but stripped of any political plan, Italy must move forward again. Her role and contribution in terms of foreign policy must be re-launched with firmness and realism if she desires to maintain her rank and to avoid finding herself isolated vis-à-vis participants in world affairs, as happened, for example, with the Berlin Summit consultations on Iran between the United States, Russia, China, and the three EU countries that initiated negotiations with Teheran. My foreign policy program, the objective of which is to restore Italy’s active participation in global affairs, is based on three principles: a strong and united Europe, a solid alliance with the United States and an opening to the problems of the globe, notably those crises that constitute a threat for all of us, with a concerted multilateral approach.
At the intersection of European and Atlantic security, Italy finds itself in a position that explains the remarkable potential for political and diplomatic influence that we have traditionally used. Nonetheless, we would be deceiving ourselves thinking that we can box above our weight class: Italy is a middle weight European power in the Mediterranean region, located on an arc of instability that goes from North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia by way of the Balkans. The political tradition of the last fifty years as well as the challenges launched at our security and our prosperity consequently demand a foreign policy based on international cooperation.
In this sense, the essential principle of the foreign policy I propose to Italians will be to establish a relationship between Europe’s political integration process and the solid relationship of trust that we maintain with our American allies. As an important European power, Italy’s weight and its role reside above all in its ability to participate in the elaboration of European policies; on the other hand, as a solid ally in the community of Atlantic nations, Italy can contribute to formulating the Alliance’s decisions.
It goes without saying that if Italy were to marginalize itself vis-à-vis Europe, she would become a much less effective Atlantic partner, just as an isolation vis-à-vis America would make her a franc-tireur or passive spectator. Far from evolving on different levels, a united Europe and the Atlantic Alliance complete one another. I plan to devote all my energy and all my government’s initiatives to eliminating the tensions that have arisen between Europeans and our American allies, tensions that have only weakened the effectiveness of a community of shared values and common interests.
A stronger Europe is necessary for a balanced transatlantic partnership. It would strengthen the Alliance’s political dimension and adapt its role to today’s challenges: thus decisions arrived at together would be implemented collectively.
No country can manage the asymmetrical challenges of our era alone: John Kennedy’s "two pillars" must stand together, given that a stronger and more united Europe is the "indispensable ally," especially in an era when the new dangers to global security are intrinsically transnational and necessitate coordinated solutions. I am firmly convinced that peace and stability on a global scale demand a strong European-American strategic partnership, and not only ad hoc coalitions.
That’s why I think our foreign policy must be based on multilateralism. Only collaboration between Europe, the Transatlantic Alliance, and also the United Nations and Bretton Woods financial institutions will allow us to meet the challenges of poverty and disease, human rights, instability, and totalitarianism. Multilateralism is, above all, a method and a précis of shared and applied rules, an international social contract.
Today’s world, just like our local societies, is characterized by extraordinary diversity. The resolution of the world’s great problems occurs through a meeting of partners and by negotiations over common rules and practices, taking into account the needs and aspirations of all participants in good faith. To not re-launch multilateralism, to not adapt to the challenges of our times would have us run the risk of seeing emerge a new multi-polar balance of power twenty years from now, with nations that won’t want to play according to rules they didn’t contribute to creating. That is the essence of politics: the art of finding solutions to common problems together.
Italy will not cease in its efforts. On the contrary, we will continue to participate, as in the past, in multilateral peace-keeping missions. We consider that the intervention in Iraq was wrong and unjustifiable: no weapons of mass destruction have ever been found; multilateral legitimacy has never been solicited; and, finally, far from countering terrorism, the war has only contributed to exacerbating it. We will withdraw our troops from Iraq in agreement with any legitimate government in Baghdad and we will send a civilian contingent charged with helping in the reconstruction of Iraqi infrastructure and institutions.
Terrorism cannot be fought by military means only: on the contrary, it’s at the political, social, and economic level that we must confront it, as well as according to our own principles and values, in particular by wrong-footing the terrorists’ alienation and marginalization. All that implies a global level strategy against terrorism in which Europe must play its role. Following the elections, Italy is ready to take its place.
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Romano Prodi is the leader of the Center-Left coalition and future president of the Italian Assembly
