Studi Storici by Alice Ciulla
RSAJournal, 2023
This essay examines the manifold impacts of Cold War imperatives on American immigration policy. ... more This essay examines the manifold impacts of Cold War imperatives on American immigration policy. In the bipolar era, and especially until the peak of détente in the mid-1970s, anticommunism provided the political prerequisite to the restriction of the visa system. There was widespread consensus around the need to exclude foreign radicals in order to preserve the integrity of the nation. At the same time, the willingness of the USA to present itself as a model superior to the Soviet Union was the pretext for opening borders and increasing the entry of refugees, especially from communist regimes. Both these approaches had to face long-existing matters of concern over national identity, in which race, ethnicity, education, and economic conditions represented crucial factors in selecting incoming migrants. Focusing on the connections between the Cold War (a multi-faceted era, whose periodization varies according to the perspective adopted) and American immigration policy (which rules the most evident of transnational phenomena), migration offers the chance to rethink both and provides suggestions for further research on the subject.
Managing Migration in Italy and the United States, 2024
Contemporanea, 2021
This essay has two purposes. It aims at presenting new methodological approaches to the study of ... more This essay has two purposes. It aims at presenting new methodological approaches to the study of US cultural diplomacy in Italy as well as offering suggestions for new research on the subject. The argument unfolds from a discussion on three recent volumes published by Italian historians: Una biografia intellettuale di Mario Einaudi. Cultura e politica da sponda a sponda by Andrea Mariuzzo, published by Leo Olschki in 2016, Nicola Chiaromonte. Una Biografia by Cesare Panizza, published in Donzelli’s «Italians of exile» series in 2017, and Diplomazia culturale e guerra fredda. Fabio Luca Cavazza dal Mulino al centrosinistra by Francesco Bello, published by Il Mulino in 2020. These volumes, in their differences and similarities, can be placed within a recent historiographical trend of discovering – or rediscovering – the role played by some intellectuals in defining the cultural and political relations between the United States and Italy during the 20th century. While cultural diplomacy has often been analyzed through the lens of the cold war dictates, this trend pushes historians to adopt a long-term perspective and places US cultural diplomacy within the dynamics that shaped the whole 20th century, thus achieving a more comprehensive understanding of its features
Italia Contemporanea Yearbook, 2020
The Carter administration and the "communist question" in Italy. The political development and ac... more The Carter administration and the "communist question" in Italy. The political development and action, 1976-1978 Alice Ciulla* Jimmy Carter was elected President of the United States in November 1976. A few months earlier, the Italian elections marked an extraordinary result for the Italian Communist Party (PCI), and some of its members obtained institutional roles. During the electoral campaign, members of Carter's entourage released declarations that seemed to prelude to abandoning the anti-communist veto posed by previous governments. For a year after the inauguration, the US administration maintained an ambiguous position. Nonetheless, on 12 January 1978, the United States reiterated its opposition to any forms of participation of communists in the Italian government. Drawing on a varied set of sources and analysing the role of non-state actors, including think tanks and university centres, this article examines the debate on the Italian "communist question" within the Carter administration and among its advisers. Such discussion will be placed within a wider debate that crossed America's liberal culture.
USAbroad, 2020
This essay analyzes the attitude of American experts and policymakers towards the Italian Communi... more This essay analyzes the attitude of American experts and policymakers towards the Italian Communist Party (PCI) during the 1970s. As the PCI promoted a moderate line at both domestic and international level, members of American think tanks and academia started looking at it as a legitimate political actor of Italian and European politics. Such a shift from traditional Cold War balances could turn into actual policy under the Carter administration, whose foreign policy was inspired by a logic of interdependence and trilateralism. By taking into account often overlooked actors, this essay outlines the origins of such potential shift and its failed realization.
Italia contemporanea, 2020
Il democratico Jimmy Carter venne eletto presidente degli Stati Uniti nel novembre del 1976. Poch... more Il democratico Jimmy Carter venne eletto presidente degli Stati Uniti nel novembre del 1976. Pochi mesi prima, il Partito comunista italiano (Pci) aveva ottenuto uno straordinario risul- tato elettorale che aveva garantito incarichi istituzionali ad alcuni suoi esponenti. Durante la campagna elettorale, i membri dell’entourage di Carter rilasciarono dichiarazioni che sembra- vano preludere all’abbandono del veto anticomunista posto dai governi precedenti e per cir- ca un anno dall’insediamento l’amministrazione mantenne una posizione ambigua. Il 12 gen- naio 1978, tuttavia, gli Stati Uniti ribadirono ufficialmente la contrarietà a qualsiasi forma di partecipazione dei comunisti nel governo italiano. Utilizzando fonti di natura diversa e inclu- dendo nell’analisi una pluralità di attori non statali tra cui think tank e centri di ricerca uni- versitari, questo saggio mira a ricostruire il dibattito interno all’amministrazione Carter sulla “questione comunista” in Italia e a collocarlo all’interno di una discussione più ampia che at- traversò la cultura liberal statunitense.
pp. 248, ISBN: 978-88-97376-89-7, 2020
Nel corso del Novecento il continente americano è stato ripetutamente segnato dall’insorgere e d... more Nel corso del Novecento il continente americano è stato ripetutamente segnato dall’insorgere e dal diffondersi di politiche dell’odio. Odio razziale, odio politico, odio di classe. Già a partire dall’incontro fra europei e nativi, alla fine del XV secolo, il rapporto con l’“altro” è stato attraversato, tanto nel Nord quanto nel Sud America, da un alternarsi di contrapposizioni spietate, violenze e forme di subordinazione. Il Sud segregato, l’anticomunismo e l’antianarchismo negli Stati Uniti, la strategia della “sicurezza nazionale” in molti paesi dell’America latina sono altrettanti esempi di pratiche repressive basate sull’individuazione di volta in volta di un “nemico” da combattere ed eliminare. Il volume ripercorre in chiave storica alcuni episodi di odio politico in varie realtà del continente – Argentina, Brasile, Colombia, El Salvador, Messico, Stati Uniti – a partire dai quali è possibile sviluppare una riflessione sull’importanza del riconoscimento reciproco come meccanismo di base di ogni comunità politica.
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Laura Fotia insegna Storia dell’America latina contemporanea presso l’Università degli Studi Roma Tre, è stata research fellow e visiting fellow presso diversi istituti di ricerca e università europei e americani. Tra le sue pubblicazioni, La crociera della Nave “Italia” e le origini della diplomazia culturale del fascismo in America latina (Aracne, 2017) e Diplomazia culturale e propaganda attraverso l’Atlantico. Argentina e Italia 1923-1940 (Le Monnier, 2019).
Recensioni by Alice Ciulla
in «Carmilla», 3 ottobre 2020
Papers by Alice Ciulla
Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 2024
This article examines the evolution of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) within the context of Co... more This article examines the evolution of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) within the context of Cold War transatlantic relations and the global trends of the 1970s. It focuses on the interactions between the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Italian Institute of International Affairs (IAI), highlighting how this collaboration helped steer the PCI’s political and ideological shifts, particularly through the influ-ence of IAI founder Altiero Spinelli. The article also emphasizes the counterbalanc-ing role of conservative American and Italian political circles in reinforcing Cold War paradigms. Ultimately, the PCI’s strategic adaptations in its post-Cold War era, were influenced by these transatlantic dialogues.
The article analyzes Stanley Hoffmann's view on US foreign policy in the aftermath of Septemb... more The article analyzes Stanley Hoffmann's view on US foreign policy in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, and especially on the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003. It is based on his books, including his earlier ones, Gulliver's Troubles , Janus and Minerva , and Duties Beyond Borders , and on the essays he published in the New York Review of Books from 2001 until 2006. Hoffmann’s analysis represents a powerful example of how “unfinished” the debate on American foreign policy is and will probably always be.
Jimmy Carter was elected President of the United States in November 1976. A few months earlier, t... more Jimmy Carter was elected President of the United States in November 1976. A few months earlier, the Italian elections marked an extraordinary result for the Italian Communist Party (PCI), and some of its members obtained institutional roles. During the electoral campaign, members of Carter's entourage released declarations that seemed to prelude to abandoning the anti-communist veto posed by previous governments. For a year after the inauguration, the US administration maintained an ambiguous position. Nonetheless, on 12 January 1978, the United States reiterated its opposition to any forms of participation of communists in the Italian government. Drawing on a varied set of sources and analysing the role of non-state actors, including think tanks and university centres, this article examines the debate on the Italian "communist question" within the Carter administration and among its advisers. Such discussion will be placed within a wider debate that crossed America...
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Studi Storici by Alice Ciulla
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Laura Fotia insegna Storia dell’America latina contemporanea presso l’Università degli Studi Roma Tre, è stata research fellow e visiting fellow presso diversi istituti di ricerca e università europei e americani. Tra le sue pubblicazioni, La crociera della Nave “Italia” e le origini della diplomazia culturale del fascismo in America latina (Aracne, 2017) e Diplomazia culturale e propaganda attraverso l’Atlantico. Argentina e Italia 1923-1940 (Le Monnier, 2019).
Recensioni by Alice Ciulla
Papers by Alice Ciulla
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Laura Fotia insegna Storia dell’America latina contemporanea presso l’Università degli Studi Roma Tre, è stata research fellow e visiting fellow presso diversi istituti di ricerca e università europei e americani. Tra le sue pubblicazioni, La crociera della Nave “Italia” e le origini della diplomazia culturale del fascismo in America latina (Aracne, 2017) e Diplomazia culturale e propaganda attraverso l’Atlantico. Argentina e Italia 1923-1940 (Le Monnier, 2019).