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Italian cooperation with Mozambique: explaining the emergence and consolidation of a normative power

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2019

Daniela Sicurelli Open the ORCID record for Daniela Sicurelli [Opens in a new window]
Daniela Sicurelli*
Affiliation:
University of Trento, Via Verdi 26, 38122, Trento, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: Daniela.Sicurelli@unitn.it
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Abstract

Italy has developed a long-dated partnership with Mozambique, where it has emerged as an actor committed to norm promotion in the fields of conflict management, debt relief, and sustainable energy cooperation. This paper challenges the dominant interpretation of such a cooperative relationship that emphasizes ideational motivations and focuses, instead, on the role of Italian investors in the sectors of infrastructure and energy and of the Italian economic diplomacy. A favorable institutional and political climate in Italy has channeled investors' demands in the policy process since the independence of Mozambique. The late institutionalization of Italian development policy, the long gestation of the reform of development policy, and the lack of clear-cut borders between the competences of foreign and development cooperation institutions have empowered business groups that shape the investment strategy of the Italian foreign ministry as actors in development policy-making. Finally, convergence of interests between Italian investors and the NGO Sant'Egidio, which ultimately led to a partnership between these actors, has increased the legitimacy of Italian foreign and development policy toward Mozambique, contributing to consolidating Italy as a norm promoter in the country.

Keywords

Conflict managementdevelopment cooperationItalyMozambiquenormative power
Type
Research Article
Information
Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , July 2020 , pp. 254 - 270
Copyright
Copyright © Società Italiana di Scienza Politica 2019

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