Italy’s foreign assistance policy 1959-1969

In a ground-breaking special issue of CEH on the origins of the aid policies of the West European countries edited by Heide-Irene Schmidt and Helge Pharo, this article examines how Italy volunteered in 1960 to be a donor country, up-down turning its post-war profile of an aid-receiving country to retain its position among the leading Western powers in a rapidly evolving international environment. It shows that implementing the new role was a difficult task for the Center-Left governments committed to domestic reforms and facing the first slow down of the ‘Miracolo’, so that the following years witnessed difficulties in develop the institutional and financial requirements of the role.