https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1848-9775
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ABSTRACT
Diplomacy has played a key role in conflicts since ancient times. Over time, the role of diplomatic agents has changed, to take on, gradually, greater importance especially in wartime. This article focuses on the activities of the Italian foreign service in World War II and on the role of diplomats during the civil war that followed the fall of Fascism and the subsequent armistice with the Allies. In this dramatic context, some diplomats confirmed their loyalty to the king, while others joined the new-born Italian Social Republic (R.S.I.), a puppet state ruled by Mussolini under the protection of Nazi Germany. Somewhere, two Italian diplomatic representations coexisted shortly. A page in the history of diplomacy, unknown to wide audience, that this contribution aims to bring to light. The article strives to draw conclusions on the implications and consequences of this ‘diplomatic civil war’ on post-war Italian foreign policy.
RIASSUNTO
La diplomazia ha svolto un ruolo chiave nei conflitti fin dall’antichità. Strada facendo, il ruolo dei diplomatici si è trasformato, assumendo progressivamente maggiore importanza, soprattutto in tempo di guerra. Questo studio mette in luce le attività dei diplomatici italiani durante la Seconda guerra mondiale, e il loro ruolo durante la guerra civile che seguì la caduta del fascismo, e il successivo armistizio con gli Alleati. In questo drammatico contesto, alcuni di essi confermarono la loro fedeltà al re, mentre altri aderirono alla neonata Repubblica Sociale Italiana (R.S.I.), stato fantoccio governato da Mussolini sotto la protezione della Germania nazista. A seguito di ciò, per breve tempo, in alcuni paesi coesistettero due rappresentanze diplomatiche italiane. Una pagina della storia della diplomazia, sconosciuta al vasto pubblico, che questo saggio si propone di portare alla luce, evidenziandone le implicazioni e le conseguenze sulla politica estera italiana del secondo dopoguerra.
Acknowledgement
This work received financial support by the European Social Fund (ESF) and by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, under grant SFRH/BD/136170/2018.
Notes
1 The Triple Entente was an informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic and Great Britain.
2 Bastianini served as consul general (1927), Italian envoy to Lisbon (10 August 1928–14 November 1929), ambassador to Poland (1932), ambassador to the United Kingdom (1939), thereby replacing Dino Grandi; undersecretary for foreign affairs (11 June 1936–14 October 1939 and 6 February 1943–25 July 1943).
3 Germany, Italy and Japan are typically described as the major Axis powers.
4 A client state is a state that is economically, politically, or militarily subordinate to another more powerful state (termed controlling state in this article) in international relations (Fry, Goldstein and Langhorne Citation2002, 9).
5 Mussolini held the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ad interim until 12 September 1929, from 20 July 1932–11 June 1936, and finally from 6 February 1943–25 July 1943.
6 Alfieri, inter alia, served as Undersercretary for Corporations (1929–1932), Secretariat for Press and Propaganda (1935), later upgraded to the rank of Ministry (27 May 1937–31 October 1939) and finally renamed Ministry of Popular Culture on 27 May 1937.
7 Attolico served as ambassador to Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1940 and to the Holy See from 1940 to 1942.
8 In mid-1926, Guariglia, who was about to be appointed to a senior official position at the Ministry, refused to join the P.N.F. because he believed that ‘officials should not belong to any party’ (Grassi Orsini Citation1996, 131).
9 De Gasperi was the last Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy, serving under both Victor Emmanuel III and Umberto II, and the first Prime Minister of the Italian Republic (10 December 1945–17 August 1953). In June 1946 he also briefly served as provisional head of state after the Italian people voted to end the monarchy and establish a republic.
10 Anfuso served, inter alia, as head of legation in Budapest (1929–1931) and ambassador in Berlin (1931–1932), Beijing (1932–1934) and Athens (1934–1936). He was appointed by Mussolini as undersecretary of state for foreign affairs at the last stage of WWII, on 19 March 1945. He was elected in the Chamber of Deputies in 1953.
11 Manchukuo lived from 1932 to 1945. 2Prunas was appointed M.O.F.A. Secretary General under the Badoglio Government.
12 Sforza entered the diplomatic service in 1896. He served as consular attaché in Cairo (1896), Paris (1897), then as consular secretary in Constantinople (1901) and Beijing. Sforza was appointed chargé d’affaires in Bucharest (1905) and first secretary of legation in Madrid (1906–1907), before being sent as chargé d’affaires in Constantinople (1908–1909). Afterwards, he served as Counsellor of Embassy at London (1909) and again in Beijing (1911–1915).
13 Sforza lived in Belgium and France until the German occupation in June 1940. He then settled in England where he lived until moving on to the United States.
14 The cold war was a period of ideological and geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, after WWII, considered to span from 1947 to the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. (26 December 1991).
15 The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program) was a U.S. initiative aimed to support western European economies after the end of WWII.
16 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 289 of 21 November 1949.
17 ACS, MI, Gab.1950-52, ff. 13142/1-13143/20, MAE t.20/04050/C, Wollemberg, L.J., Neofascismo italiano, The Reporter, 14 March 1951.
18 Anfuso was re-elected in 1958 and 1963. He died while giving a speech in the Chamber of Deputies on 13 December 1963.
19 ° Tarchiani was Minister of Public Works in the second Badoglio Government (April–June 1944).
20 After finishing the diplomatic career, Donini was elected Senator in 1953 and 1963 with the P.C.I.
21 Brosio was minister without portfolio in the 3rd Bonomi cabinet (1944–1945), Deputy PM in the executive led by Ferruccio Parri (1945) and Minister of War (1945–1946) in the first De Gasperi government, before starting a diplomatic career: ambassador to the Soviet Union (1947–1951), to the U.K. (1952–1954), to the U.S. (1955–1961) and eventually to France (1961–1964). He briefly led the Italian Liberal Party in 1944.
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Marco Marsili
Marco Marsili holds research positions in civil and military institutions in Portugal (CIEP-UCP, CEI-IUL, CINAMIL, CIDIUM). He conducts his research in the broad area of international relations, with a specific focus on international law, international humanitarian law, fundamental human rights, terrorism, counterterrorism, security and defense, self-determination, independence, and statehood. Recently, he devoted himself to the study of hybrid warfare and unconventional conflicts. He got a European PhD in History, Studies of Security and Defense from the ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL). He is the sole author of many papers, monographs, and contributions in collective volumes. Dr Marsili is the recipient of international grants, fellowships, awards, and prizes, among which stands out the Seal of Excellence of the European Commission (2021). Currently, Dr Marsili is engaged as cyber defense and cyber security expert in two studies commissioned by the European Defence Agency (EDA) and run by an international military-civilian consortium, and in the PANDORA project, a platform financed by the European Commission within the first European Defence Industrial Development Programme with the purpose to enhance EU’s cyberdefence capability on the strength of a detection and threat-response solution. He is principal investigator of the project “North Atlantic Security and Defense Strategy (NASDS)” supported by the Fund for Bilateral Relations/EEA Grants 2014-2021. [email protected].