The Belt and Road initiative in Italy. Five case studies

The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by the Italian government in 2019 sparked a fierce debate at the time, as Italy was the first (and the only) G7 country officially joining the highly controversial Chinese initiative. The United States and several European countries expressed concerns about what they saw as Italy’s embarking on a dangerous road for its sovereignty as well as for the Euro-Atlantic community. Despite being the focus of media and scholars’ attention in 2019, no comprehensive study has been conducted so far assessing the development of the BRI in Italy. This book attempts to fill this void. It focuses on five fields of cooperation between China and Italy, providing insight on whether the MoU has brought about an intensification of bilateral collaboration as wished by the Italian government at the time and whether the concerns of US and EU have materialised.