Italian diplomacy and the Ukrainian crisis: the challenges (and cost) of continuity

This article seeks to analyse the Italian diplomatic response to the Ukrainian crisis. To this end, the article relies on role theory to understand how Italy’s diplomatic posture during the war was influenced by the expectations deriving from its EU and NATO membership, but also by the different role conceptions emerging in the public debate. Though Italy under its Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, not only responded to but effectively led European strategy towards Ukraine during the crisis – including supporting Ukraine’s membership bid – on the internal front the country was polarized, unwilling to push for further punishment of Russia in view of its economic reverberations, but also questioning military involvement in the war in Ukraine. After a failed attempt to reconcile external expectations and domestic preferences, centred around Italy’s sponsorship of a ‘peace plan’ for Ukraine, the tension between the two sets of influences intensified to the point of precipitating the end of the Draghi government in July 2022, with Italy’s response to the Ukrainian crisis invoked as one of the main causes of the government’s fall. Although the right-wing alliance of political parties that won the ensuing general elections campaigned on a populist and nationalist, ‘Italy first’, platform, the country’s posture towards the war in Ukraine has not really changed – under its current Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, Italy has continued to align with the multilateral expectations set by the EU and the US. The differences in foreign policy outlook within the current governing coalition, however, are not insignificant, and public opinion continues to be divided. This suggests that the tension underlying Italy’s foreign policy in the Ukraine crisis has not been resolved – in fact, it could still potentially undermine the country’s diplomatic posture, as well as the government’s own stability, in the months to come

The Sacred and the Political: Exploration on Mimesis, Violence and Religion

What is the relationship between the sacred and the political, transcendence and immanence, religion and violence? And how has this complex relation affected the history of Western political reason? In this volume an international group of scholars explore these questions in light of mimetic theory as formulated by René Girard (1923-2015), one of the most original thinkers of our time. From Aristotle and his idea of tragedy, passing through Machiavelli and political modernity, up to contemporary biopolitics, this work provides an indispensable guide to those who want to assess the thorny interconnections of sacrality and politics in Western political thought and follow an unexplored yet critical path from ancient Greece to our post-secular condition. While looking at the past, this volume also seeks to illuminate the future relevance of the sacred/secular divide in the so-called 'age of globalization'

Congenital Syphilis Like Many Years Ago

This case concerns a premature infant with typical signs of congenital syphilis born to an untreated foreign mother. Syphilis prevalence in pregnant women has been rising in Italy since the beginning of the 21st century, mainly due to immigration. A correct antenatal syphilis screening and consequent adequate therapy of pregnant woman are fundamental to prevent the neonatal infection

Foreign Policy and the Ideology of Post-ideology: The Case of Matteo Renzi’s Partito Democratico

The post-communist Italian Left has experienced a long phase of ideational misalignment between ideas placed at different levels, as a qualified discursive institutionalist approach demonstrates. Background public philosophies have often clashed with post-communist political ideology, while foreign policy programmes have often contradicted specific policies. Under the leadership of Matteo Renzi, however, the PD is now experiencing a moment of remarkable ideational consistency. Rather than being founded on entirely new premises, this new consensus folds old elements into new ones and shows all the defining traits of post-ideology. Yet, by espousing post-ideology, Renzi is making an ultimately ideological move whose limitations may soon start to show

Prognostic value of normal sodium levels in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma receiving tyrosine kinase inhibitors

Background: Although serum sodium concentration, particularly hyponatremia, has been shown to be a prognostic marker of survival in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), the impact of normal sodium levels has not been investigated. Herein, we investigate the influence of normonatremia in mRCC patients treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Materials and methods: For this retrospective study, the clinical and biochemical data of patients treated with first-line TKIs for mRCC were available from seven Italian cancer centers. We collected natremia levels at baseline and first evaluation after treatment excluding patients with sodium levels outside the normal range (<135 or >145 mEq/L). The remaining patients were subdivided into two groups according to the median sodium value: natremia patients with <140 mEq/L (n = 132) and baseline natremia patients with ≥140 mEq/L (n = 185). Subsequently, we analyzed the impact of sodium levels on response rate (RR), disease control rate (DCR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). PFS and OS were estimated through the Kaplan–Meier method, and differences between groups were examined by the log-rank test. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were applied to evaluate the prognostic factors for PFS and OS. Results: Of the 368 patients, 317 were included in the analysis, 73.1% were men, and the median age was 67 years (range 36–89). When comparing patients with baseline natremia ≥140 mEq/L (n = 185) to patients with natremia <140 mEq/L (n = 132), the PFS was 15 vs. 10 months (p < 0.01) and the OS was 63 vs. 36 months, respectively (p = 0.02). On the first evaluation, patients with serum sodium ≥140 mEq/L had longer PFS (15 vs. 10 months, p < 0.01) and OS (70 vs. 32 months, p < 0.01) than patients with levels <140 mEq/L. Moreover, clinical outcomes showed a significant improvement in patients with natremia ≥140 mEq/L compared with patients with levels <140 mEq/L both at baseline and first evaluation: PFS was 19 vs. 11 months (p < 0.01) and OS was 70 vs. 36 months (p < 0.01), respectively. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the impact of normonatremia in mRCC. We found that serum sodium levels <140 mEq/L at baseline and first assessment are independently associated with worse PFS and OS in mRCC patients treated with TKIs in the first-line setting

Foreign policy and the international / domestic nexus : the case of Italy

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

'One Man Alone'? A Longue Durée Approach to Italy's Foreign Policy under Berlusconi

By adopting a longue durée approach this paper aims to move the debate on Italy's foreign policy under the leadership of Silvio Berlusconi beyond the presentism and personalization currently dominating it. It argues firstly that the equation of Italian foreign policy with Berlusconi irresistible as it may be does not ultimately hold, and secondly that Berlusconi's 'new course' in foreign policy has to be put in a broader context. A more historically informed reading of the subject can on the one hand confer meaning and substance to what otherwise could appear to be a supremely ephemeral foreign policy, and on the other help illuminate its current trajectory and future implications. Far from being the product of 'one man alone' and his surreal quirks, the recent change in Italy's foreign policy results from a particular dialectic interplay between structural and contingent developments, which have come to intersect at this particular tim

«Quindi parliamo e quindi ridiam noi» (Purg. XXV 103). The soul (from creation to shadow) in Dante's works.

openL’elaborato prende in esame l’anima nelle opere dantesche. Il primo capitolo si concentra su Convivio IV xxi, innanzitutto tracciando le coordinate della filosofia aristotelica medievale e il percorso di studi filosofici compiuto da Dante dopo la morte di Beatrice. In secondo luogo, si procede con l’analisi del passo e del pensiero di Alberto Magno e Tommaso d’Aquino riguardo alla genesi dell’anima, menzionando il dibattito Nardi-Busnelli in merito al tomismo di Dante. Nel secondo capitolo l’attenzione è posta su Purgatorio XXV. Dopo aver definito la dimensione allegorica e letterale del poema, si procede ad analizzare il pensiero dei teologi del XIII secolo sulla corporalità dell’anima separata e la differenza che c’è tra questo e l’immaginario dantesco. Quindi, si fa un breve riferimento a Purgatorio III e poi ci si concentra sulla lezione di Purgatorio XXV analizzando le parole di Stazio in merito alla genesi dell’anima e il corpo aereo. Solo a questo punto il dibattito Nardi-Busnelli viene approfondito. Infine, l’ultimo capitolo si concentra sul rapporto Stazio-Virgilio e sul desiderio di conoscenza teorizzato da Dante prima nel Convivio e poi ribadito nella Commedia, per cercare di rispondere alla domanda che molti commentatori si sono posti circa il motivo per cui è il poeta latino a spiegare la questione dell’anima a Dante e non Virgilio e per dimostrare ancora una volta come per Dante la filosofia non garantisca la salvezza e la vita eterna