How Did The Cold War Affect Italy

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The end of the Cold War marked the reign of the US as a sole superpower in international relations(IR). Along side other countries in IR, Italy and Germany both wanted to build an even stronger diplomatic relationship with the US than they already had. The Marshall Plan was a major factor behind this, but there were other significant reasons for it too. For Italy, this was because they politically did not want to remain as an ‘an uninfluential player in world affairs’ (Partridge, 1998, p172). To prevent this, they needed to extend their influence internationally and they knew that if they ensured a stable relation with the US after its Cold War victory, it would secure this for them. This was because USA at the time were biggest influencers in …show more content…

However, the end of this war eventually made this reunification possible. This explains why keeping intact a stable relation with the US was vital for Germany. It has been ensuring the prevention of Russian influence dividing the nation again and making the country politically unstable. For Italy, this US relation perhaps did more harm than good to their internal politics because they were focusing too much on becoming a politically influential global actor. What we can now agree on is that for the politics of both countries, the US was visibly very important, its victory in the Cold War allowed its influences to determine the political aims and interests of Italy and Germany. Had it been a Soviet Union victory, Germany would still be divided and unstable and Italy perhaps would still remain less important in IR. Nether the less, it is not a fully claimed fact that Italy would be politically worse with a Soviet Union victory; as stated they were already unstable and unlike Germany their political aim was not reuniting for a stronger nation, they simply only wanted to become more