Routledge Research PROOF ONLY 14 Italy, German unification and the end of the Cold War Leopoldo Nuti The purpose of this chapter is to sketch out the main Italian reactions to the radical transformation of the international system between 1989 and 1991. Overtaken by the events as were all its European counterparts, the Andreotti–De Michelis government overcame its initial puzzlement and adopted a policy which mixed old and new approaches in order to foster a European environment where German reunification could safely evolve. As for its sources, the chapter is almost entirely based on secondary ones. Unfortunately, there are no primary Italian documents available for these years, nor have many of the key Italian protagonists written any particu- larly significant recollections of the role they played. 1 Italian foreign policy in the 1980s Italian domestic politics underwent a remarkable period of change in the late 1970s. In 1979 the long search for an entente between the Commu- nist Party (PCI) on the one hand and the centre and moderate left on the other had apparently come to an end. The Communist defeat in the 1979 elections set the stage for the creation of a new parliamentary majority based on cooperation between the centre and the moderate left and the exclusion of the PCI itself. The creation of a new coalition was accompan- ied by several major changes: the symbolic shift of the post of Prime Minis- ter to non-Christian Democratic leaders (the Republican Giovanni Spadolini held the post from 1981 to 1982, and the Socialist Bettino Craxi from 1983 to 1987), a gradual economic reprise and increasing success in the struggle against domestic terrorism. 2 This new phase of Italian domestic politics was matched by a parallel attempt to reintroduce some dynamism into Italian foreign policy. The foremost aim of the new activism was to compensate for the loss of pres- tige which Italy had suffered throughout the 1970s, when the combination of economic weakness, terrorism and political instability had made Italy appear an extremely fragile and unreliable partner. 3 From 1979 onwards, therefore, there is much evidence of an unprecedented Italian willingness to engage in a more incisive foreign policy than in the past, with the two 062_14_End of Cold War 7/11/2007 15:35 Page 191 062_14_End of Cold War.pdf