The Italian servizi segreti fragmented and swayed 1900-today
Date
2021
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Italy, as a geographic location, has the longest recorded history of espionage and intelligence practice in the Western world. A complete and comprehensive evaluation and analysis of the intelligence services of Italy, from its unification as a set of foreign-ruled city-states to present-day, has not been undertaken or accomplished in English. This thesis fills this historical void. Additionally, this paper provides a historical recount of the Italian intelligence services: their organizational structures, their flaws and successes, and their role throughout major events in Italian history through the implementation of academic journals, news articles, and interviews in both English and Italian. Historically, the Italian intelligence apparatus has often been inefficacious and disjointed followed by periods of organizational reforms and strengthening. In the early 2000s, during one of these reformation periods, it appeared that the Italian intelligence apparatus was finally emerging from its troubled past. This emergence has recently been compromised by the rise of populism and presently the intelligence services must make a critical decision: to resemble their predecessors or begin a new effective era.
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Keywords
Intelligence, Italian, National Security, Segreti, Service, Servizio