In the footsteps of George Orwell: Patrick McCarthy as Italian correspondent for Tribune, 1978–1980

Abstract

This paper examines Italy's contribution to the United Nations (UN) and how effective this has been in protecting Italian interests. The first part outlines the areas where Italy's input to the UN has been most relevant in terms of ideas, policies and participation, such as for example the campaign to ban the death penalty and its participation in collective security through participation in UN peacekeeping missions. This paper also highlights the critical role that Italy's long-standing positions on UN reform and the enlargement of the Security Council have played in defining Italy's status in the international community, and asks whether there have been significant changes in the traditional Italian position and its loyalty to the UN and, more generally, to the multilateral system. The second part analyzes the origin and rationale of Italy's policies toward the UN and their effectiveness in defining and defending the national interest. It explores the idea that these policies have been determined by the ‘institutional multilateralism’ of the Italian Constitution, the ‘genetic multilateralism’ of the Italian society and the ‘forced multilateralism’ of Italy as a middle-range power. Italy's positions on the UN and its reform are examined in the light of claims that Italy's foreign policy reflects its ‘complex of exclusion’ and presumed lack of influence in the ‘major stakes’ in world diplomacy.     

The exiles of the Risorgimento: Italian volunteers in the Portuguese Civil War (1832–34)

Abstract

Between 1832 and 1834 during the civil war against the partisans of absolutism in Portugal about a hundred Italians fought as volunteers in the Portuguese liberal army. These Italians were motivated to participate by a Romantic culture of war that was strongly rooted in the liberal nationalism of the Italian Risorgimento, but above all, the decision to fight as a volunteer abroad was the result of an international movement of political solidarity with Portuguese liberalism in the early 1830s with which the Italian liberals came into contact during their political exile in France and in Belgium. For the Italian, fighting as volunteers in Portugal proved to be a decisive political experience which deeply shaped their own political ideas of the nation that the volunteers would subsequently draw on in their different political and professional roles in Italy where they became ministers, diplomats and generals of the Kingdom of Italy.     

Fighting the Risorgimento: foreign volunteers in southern Italy (1860–63)

Abstract

Between 1860 and 1863 hundreds of men from all over Europe volunteered for service in the wars of southern ‘brigands’ on behalf of the exiled King Francis II of Naples. In an attempt to correct the often biased interpretation of this involvement (that was attributed simply to a thirst for adventure, romanticism or even psychological disorder) that coloured the accounts by Italian patriots, this essay suggests the need for fresh consideration. It develops three lines of inquiry that focus respectively on the strong impact of Italian Unification on conservative and Catholic opinion and the ways in which these sources portrayed the struggles of the southern insurgents, the clumsy efforts made by the Neapolitan government-in-exile to recruit volunteers and organize armed expeditions against the former kingdom, and the so-called ‘white international’ in which the warriors of the counter-revolution were depicted as combatants in conflicts that were both civil wars and at the same time episodes in a much longer international ideological struggle. In this context, the significance of foreign involvement in defence of the Neapolitan Bourbons takes on a significance that goes far beyond its poor military outcome.     

The foreign policy of First Republic Italy: new approaches

This introductory article deals with the most recent contributions by Italian historians on the Italian Republic's international role. It aims mainly to demonstrate that a new generation of younger Italian historians is successfully offering new views and interpretations on First Republic Italy's role in the international system, and is also focusing on aspects such as the culture of Italy's political parties, the economic dimension, the role of public opinion, and the influence of external actors on domestic Italian politics – in short, that there has been a turn away from traditional diplomatic history based upon the archives of the Foreign Ministry.     

SEISMIC BEHAVIOUR OF A R/C WALL: NUMERICAL SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION

This paper describes the numerical simulation of the seismic behaviour of a mock-up of a six-floor building, constituted by two parallel R/C walls and experimentally tested on a shaking table. Within the scope of an international benchmark the mock-up was submitted to three earthquakes with intensities up to 0.71 g, which induced nonlinear behaviour in the concrete and reinforcement. For the numerical simulations concrete is discretised with 2D finite elements, and its behaviour reproduced via a constitutive model with two scalar damage variables. Steel rebars are discretised with 2-noded truss elements, and their constitutive behaviour under cyclic conditions reproduced by the Menegottb-Pinto model. Specific attention is devoted to Rayleigh damping, focusing on two different strategies: (i) disregarding the damping contribution, or (ii) adopting a damping matrix that takes into account the stiffness changes during the nonlinear analyses. Main results and strategies for simulating the benchmark axe presented, with emphasis on the comparison between the numerical and the experimental results, which show good agreement when the damping contribution is neglected.     

西安市外国游客旅游交往行为及交往效应研究

在现代社会中,旅游是一种十分重要的交往方式。作为一种限定于发生在旅游地这一特定空间及游客与东道主这两个特定群体之间的交往,旅游交往在地理空间、社会关系以及交往目的上有一定的特殊性。利用项目组在西安对外国游客和当地居民所作的455份抽样调查资料,运用Excell统计软件,从游客和当地居民两方面分析了外国游客与西安当地居民旅游交往行为的特点,并对主客交往效应进行了分析,进而提出了优化西安主客交往的建议,即克服主客交往障碍、创造主客交往机会和营造良好的主客交往环境。     

从国际法论中日钓鱼岛争端及其解决前景

章认为从国际法方面看钓鱼岛的主权属于中国,日本所主张的“无主地先占”原则根本不能成立。根据联合国新海洋法和国际司法判例,钓鱼岛不应享有大陆架和专属经济区,亦不具有划界效力。中日东海大陆架的划分应遵循公平和自然延伸的原则。在和平解决争端的前景下,钓鱼岛问题面临三种可能的选择。     

论张学良与“西北国防政府”计划

张学良自成局面的设想和中共先行建立地区性国防政府的策略 ,是促成“西北国防政府”计划产生之两大要素。但在该计划的实施步骤及是否反蒋、如何打通苏联等问题上 ,张与中共间存在着某些潜在分歧 ,加之中共的政策由反蒋抗日急剧转向逼蒋抗日 ,打通苏联亦未能成功 ,从而导致该计划终归流产     

西安城市国际化条件评析

本文从城市国际化理论入手,以90年代初初级国际性城市的指标值为参考,分析了西安城市国际化的有利条件和存在问题,并提出西安城市国际化的对策。     

中国入境外国游客旅游行为研究

在心理测试量表调查的基础上,利用心理学实验,归纳,演绎推理,行为意象图,数理统计等分析方法,从游客决策行为、空间行为、旅游文化行为切入,研究中国热点城市日韩、北美、东南亚、欧洲客源市场游客的行为规律及其制约因素,构建主要群体入境游客的旅游行为模式,发现了入境外国游客旅游选择偏好、时空动态规律;探讨旅游决策的主导模式、范式和影响决策的可控因素;研究"文化边际域"中的跨文化冲突特征和旅游认知预期衰减效应模式;揭示了旅游意愿评价、旅游感知评价数量模型和四种不同群体游客文化交互模式。并提出了适应外国游客旅游行为的相应对策建议。