Duccio Basosi | Università Ca' Foscari Venezia (original) (raw)

Books by Duccio Basosi

Rivista Italiana di Storia Internazionale, 2020

A cura di Benedetto Zaccaria, Duccio Basosi e Mauro Campus. Le analisi presentate in questo fasci... more A cura di Benedetto Zaccaria, Duccio Basosi e Mauro Campus. Le analisi presentate in questo fascicolo mettono in luce in maniera piuttosto coerente come l'agency statunitense nella cosiddetta "crisi dei debiti esteri" degli anni Ottanta si inserisse in più ampie dinamiche strutturali, che di tali scelte furono al contempo causa ed effetto. Tra queste, come illustrano le pagine che seguono, vi furono la crisi delle politiche di sviluppo, il mutare forma dei confronti Nord/Sud ed Est/Sud, l’incerto atteggiamento della stessa amministrazione Reagan verso l’idea di poter condizionare il campo socialista, ed il mutamento nelle politiche di credito di governi e banche commerciali – determinata anche da precise scelte del mondo finanziario privato. A ben vedere, vi è poi forse un contributo di carattere più generale che emerge
dalla lettura dei saggi del fascicolo: la sequenza dei fatti descritta è in larga parte autonoma dalla cornice del confronto bipolare, che pure nella seconda metà degli anni Ottanta entrava nella sua fase declinante. Nel complesso, la selezione qui presentata rende quindi conto delle molteplici radici storiche di un «consenso» il cui sviluppo va ricercato al di là della Washington trionfante al volgere del «secolo breve».

I.B. Tauris, 2018

Duccio Basosi, Giuliano Garavini and Massimiliano Trentin, eds. The oil price collapse of 1985–6 ... more Duccio Basosi, Giuliano Garavini and Massimiliano Trentin, eds. The oil price collapse of 1985–6 had momentous consequences globally: in terms of prevailing energy paradigms, the non-fossil fuel alternatives simply turned uncompetitive while huge new markets opened up for fossil fuels, particularly in China and India. In international relations, the previous talk of an OPEC ‘imperium’ was turned upside-down. Compared to the much-debated 1973 ‘oil shock’, the ‘counter-shock’ has not received the same degree of attention. This volume is the first to put the oil price ‘counter-shock’ of the mid-1980s into historical perspective. Featuring some of the most
knowledgeable experts in the field, Counter-Shock offers a balanced approach between the global picture and local study cases. In particular, it highlights the crucial interaction between the oil counter-shock and the political ‘counter-revolution’ against state intrusion in economic management, put forward by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the same period.

Cambridge Scholars, 2014

Rosa Caroli and Duccio Basosi, eds. Six decades after the end of the occupation of mainland Japan... more Rosa Caroli and Duccio Basosi, eds. Six decades after the end of the occupation of mainland Japan, this volume approaches the theme of the occupation’s legacies. Rather than just being a matter of administrative practices and international relations, the consequences of the US occupation of Japan transcended both the seven years of its formal duration and the bilateral relations between the two countries. Rich with fresh analyses on a range of topics, including transnational and comparative views on the occupation, the influence of Japan on the United States as well as the reverse, international perspectives on this “odd couple”, and the memory of the occupation in both countries, this book provides a greater understanding of the transtemporal, transnational and transcultural legacies of one of the crucial events of the 20th century.

Studio LT2, 2012

Tra la fine del 1973 e l’inizio del 1974 i prezzi del petrolio aumentarono di quattro volte, avvi... more Tra la fine del 1973 e l’inizio del 1974 i prezzi del petrolio aumentarono di quattro volte, avviando quello che fu presto battezzato lo shock petrolifero. Sulla base di documenti primari raccolti negli archivi statunitensi e di vari Paesi europei, il volume analizza come gli Stati Uniti riuscirono a trasformare una situazione critica in un’opportunità di rilancio della propria supremazia, concentrandosi sulla capacità del governo statunitense di attrarre e “riciclare” gli ingenti fondi accumulati dai Paesi produttori di petrolio. Pur con i cambiamenti quantitativi e qualitativi connessi al mutare delle situzioni, il legame tra dollaro e petrolio consolidato dagli eventi del 1973-75 continua a essere uno dei cardini del sistema economico internazionale. Il primo capitolo del volume presenta le origini della crisi petrolifera, concentrandosi in particolare sull'anno 1973, quando i rincari del prezzo del petrolio furono talmente rapidi e ingenti da far parlare di un vero e proprio shock. Il secondo capitolo presenta il quadro, assai fluido, delle interazioni tra crisi petrolifera e relazioni internazionali all'indomani dello shock. Il terzo capitolo si concentra sulla sulla vittoria statunitense nella competizione per il riciclaggio dei petrodollari. L'epilogo si concentra sugli anni 1975-78, trattando le varie tappe che, anche attraverso il consolidamento delle relazioni bilaterali tra gli Stati Uniti e i principali Paesi esportatori di greggio, condussero alla legittimazione del nuovo ordine monetario.

Polistampa, 2006

This volume deals with US policy and the end of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rates regime bet... more This volume deals with US policy and the end of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rates regime between 1969 and 1973. It is based on the records of the three secretaries that served in the US Treasury under the Nixon administration (Kennedy, Connally and Shultz) on the files of their undersecretary for Monetary Affairs (Volcker), and on White House, NSC, Federal Reserve and State Department records. From the very beginning of its term in office, the Nixon administration included the need for a different international monetary system in the broad process of reshaping of US foreign policy that would take the forms of the Nixon Doctrine, Détente, and the opening to China. US economic and political exigencies called for a "flexible" system based on the dollar, intended to serve the trends toward growing transnational investments by US companies and banks, as well as the perceived need of a diminished financial constraint on overseas military commitments. However implicitly, and with a trial and error process concerning implementation, this entailed a de facto new conception of US hegemony globally, as well as a serious clash of interests with the West European allies in particular. As West European plans, to create their own shield against monetary instability, took on growing credibility throughout 1970 with the launching of the EMU and the Werner plan, US policymakers moved towards the unilateral suspension of their commitment to Bretton Woods. This came on 15 August 1971, after months of deep internal debate within the administration, involving both economic and geopolitical reflections. The second half of 1971, as well as the year 1972, marked the beginning of a different phase. The US administration proceeded quite ruthlessly in the dismantling of the Bretton Woods system, sometimes actually using global financial instability to secure its objectives. A new conception of global American power was taking shape, and, for what concerns the Transatlantic relationship, a clearer definition of western hierarchies de facto replaced the idealistic visions of the "partnership" of the 1960s. .

Firenze University Press, 2009

Alessandra Lorini and Duccio Basosi, eds. The volume approaches Cuba as a nation that hosts a con... more Alessandra Lorini and Duccio Basosi, eds. The volume approaches Cuba as a nation that hosts a convergence of extraordinary global developments and, in turn, projects itself onto the world's major cultural, political and economic processes. From different perspectives, ranging from architecture and music to politics and economics, the twenty-one essays presented here embrace the multifaceted interactions between Cuba and foreign imperial strategies during the 19th century, the troublesome formation of national political cultures in the first half of the 20th century, and the multiple global aspects of some of Cuba's choices from the Cold War to the first decade of the present century.

Journal articles by Duccio Basosi

Cold War History, 2023

This article contributes to the literature on the US’ and Cuba’s ‘conflicting missions’ in Africa... more This article contributes to the literature on the US’ and Cuba’s ‘conflicting missions’ in Africa by focusing on a little-known (and failed) attempt by the Jimmy Carter administration, particularly between late 1977 and the summer of 1978, to mobilize the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to pressure Cuba ‘out of Africa’. Based on a wide array of both primary and secondary sources, including declassified documents from US and French archives, this article shows that the Carter administration deployeda tactic, as yet virtually unexplored, to achieve its goal by attempting to bring about a diplomatic encirclement of Cuba inthe Third World. This was particularly in the Non-Aligned Movement, of which Havana was scheduled to host the Sixth Summit conference in 1979. This essay enriches our understanding of Carter’s approach to one of the issues which defined his presidency and sheds new light on his administration’s interactions both with Cuba and with the NAM.

Studi storici, 2023

Authors: Duccio Basosi and Benedetto Zaccaria. Abstract: At the outbreak of the “international... more Authors: Duccio Basosi and Benedetto Zaccaria.

Abstract: At the outbreak of the “international debt crisis” in 1982, the Reagan administration reacted by preparing a “strategy” that gave the IMF a central role in trying to prevent a chain of sovereign defaults which may have endangered big banks in the US and beyond. While most scholars have observed that Reagan’s policy was aimed at facilitating a “neoliberal” turn in indebted countries, in the US the Reagan plan enraged a conservative front that interpreted it as a betrayal of laissez faire and, ultimately, of Reaganism itself. This essay examines the bitter battle that Reagan waged to have Congress and his own Republican Party accept his administration’s approach. The story shows how the Reagan response to the debt crisis came about as an attempt, in some ways improvised and pragmatic, to reach an uneasy synthesis between the administration’s idealistic predilections for the “minimal State” and its need to rescue the U.S. (and international) banks.

Zapruder. Rivista di Storia della conflittualità sociale, 2023

Questo breve articolo prende in esame il modo con cui le misure economiche e monetarie intraprese... more Questo breve articolo prende in esame il modo con cui le misure economiche e monetarie intraprese ad agosto 1971 dall'amministrazione Nixon negli Stati Uniti, e gli eventi a esse immediatamente successivi, furono presentati e discussi nel discorso pubblico sovietico nei mesi a ridosso dell’evento. L'analisi del discorso pubblico sovietico permette di riflettere su come le élite politiche e intellettuali dello stato guida del mondo socialista rappresentarono uno dei momenti cruciali della storia del capitalismo novecentesco, tanto alla propria cittadinanza, quanto al nutrito pubblico dei governi alleati, dei partiti comunisti e dei “sovietologi” nel resto del mondo.

Ricerche di Storia Politica, 2023

This essay takes a critical look at US President Jimmy Carter's energy policy and high talk of «e... more This essay takes a critical look at US President Jimmy Carter's energy policy and high talk of «energy transition» in the late 1970s, which are sometimes depicted as anticipating more recent policies aimed at a post-carbon «ecological transition». Based on a wide array of both primary and secondary sources this essay shows that, while the President was indeed sensitive to environmental concerns, his priorities had little to do with present-day concerns with global warming. Premised on the belief that the high energy prices of the 1970s reflected an «impending scarcity» of oil and gas, Carter's policies paradoxically helped relaunch the consumption of fossil fuels which characterized the 1980s.

Rivista Italiana di Storia Internazionale, 2020

The essay presents a critical review of the literature on the «debt crisis» of the 1980s. In part... more The essay presents a critical review of the literature on the «debt crisis» of the 1980s. In particular, it shows how such a long and critical episode in the international political economy of the late 20th century, long interpreted in a «linear» fashion that considered the «Washington consensus» a foregone conclusion, has come to be reinterpreted in more complex and nuanced ways after the outbreak of the 2008 global economic crisis. On this basis, the article concludes by proposing a set of research themes and approaches for a further deepening of our knowledge on the subject.

Rivista Italiana di Storia Internazionale, 2020

Journal of Energy History/Revue d'Histoire de l'Énergie, n. 3, 2019

Petrodollars – the dollars accumulated by oil-producing countries as revenues for oil exports – a... more Petrodollars – the dollars accumulated by oil-producing countries as revenues for oil exports – are usually considered key to our understanding of the renewal and transformation of US power during the 1970s. Yet, in the context of a large and expanding literature, in which the essence of such power is described by terms as diverse as dominance, hegemony, empire or pax americana, scholars hold different views as to the precise nature of the link established between petrodollars and US power at the time. After reviewing the state of the literature, this essay discusses the issue based on declassified documents from US and British national archives by focusing on the way Saudi Arabian authorities allocated their vast oil earnings. While conclusive evidence is still lacking, it appears likely that Saudi choices were shaped by US diplomatic démarches and economic inducements, as well as by US offers of an ambivalent military “protection”.
https://energyhistory.eu/fr/dossier/oil-dollars-and-us-power-1970s-re-viewing-connections

Rivista italiana di storia internazionale, 2019

Presentazione e discussione dell'articolo di Matthew Connelly, 'State Secrecy, Archival Negligenc... more Presentazione e discussione dell'articolo di Matthew Connelly, 'State Secrecy, Archival Negligence, and the End of History as We Know It', Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, 2018.

Passato & Presente, 2017

Fidel Castro: History, myth and demonology. The media all over the world met the news of the pass... more Fidel Castro: History, myth and demonology. The media all over the world met the news of the passing of Fidel Castro, on 25 November 2016, with extremely polarized commentaries on his legacy. This essay argues that historians in the future can contribute to a better understanding of those aspects and episodes of his long career as revolutionary and head of state that have made him such a controversial figure. At the same time, it appears that Fidel Castro fully belonged to the political left of the 20th century, as he constantly emphasized equality as the basis of all emancipation , and collective over individual subjects as far as instances of freedom were concerned. In that sense, polarized commentaries do not reflect misunderstandings about his life as much as diverging opinions on his politics.

IAEE Energy Forum, 2015

On the road of the low-carbon energy transition there are still many obstacles, both in terms of ... more On the road of the low-carbon energy transition there are still many obstacles, both in terms of political
will, and in terms of technology and infrastructure (suffice it to think of the problems of the electricity
grids, challenged by the passage from a few large suppliers to many decentralized suppliers from photovoltaic
plants). If anything, the story of the early 1980s shows that an incipient transition can be stopped
and reversed and that a fall in oil prices, like the one of 2015, may be an ingredient of the turnaround. At the same time, the
same story also shows that if low oil prices are not necessarily good news on the way for the transition,
the factors involved are many and the game remains open.

Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 2010

During his term in office, US President Jimmy Carter made several symbolic gestures to show his s... more During his term in office, US President Jimmy Carter made several symbolic gestures to show his support to European integration. In particular, in December 1978 he warmly endorsed the European Monetary System. This seemed coherent with Carter's focus on multilateralism and, more precisely, on the 'trilateral' partnership between the US, Western Europe and Japan. Declassified documents show, however, that such endorsement only came after careful observation of the characteristics of the EMS and after discrete diplomatic pressures on the Europeans to ensure that the EMS would not impinge on the global role of the US dollar. .

Italia contemporanea, 2005

The fall of the Bretton Woods international monetary system, in 1971, has often been interpreted ... more The fall of the Bretton Woods international monetary system, in 1971, has often been interpreted as a defeat of politics – namely the choices of United States – on the part of economic forces. The documents of the Nixon presidency (1969-74), declassified at the National Archives of the United States, allow the adoption of a different perspective. The monetary instability of the second half of the 1960's, made it possible for the new republican administration to develop, since 1969, lines of thought and policies, aimed at abandoning the “embedded liberalism”of Bretton Woods, in the name of a return to more traditional laissez faire practices. Influenced by important foreign policy considerations as well, the neo-liberal international economic choices of the Nixon administration anticipated by a decade those of Ronald Reagan, and contributed to pave them the way. The contents of this essay have been analyzed in greater detail in the monograph "Il governo del dollaro. Interdipendenza economica e potere statunitense negli anni di Richard Nixon" (Firenze, 2006).

Rivista Italiana di Storia Internazionale, 2020

A cura di Benedetto Zaccaria, Duccio Basosi e Mauro Campus. Le analisi presentate in questo fasci... more A cura di Benedetto Zaccaria, Duccio Basosi e Mauro Campus. Le analisi presentate in questo fascicolo mettono in luce in maniera piuttosto coerente come l'agency statunitense nella cosiddetta "crisi dei debiti esteri" degli anni Ottanta si inserisse in più ampie dinamiche strutturali, che di tali scelte furono al contempo causa ed effetto. Tra queste, come illustrano le pagine che seguono, vi furono la crisi delle politiche di sviluppo, il mutare forma dei confronti Nord/Sud ed Est/Sud, l’incerto atteggiamento della stessa amministrazione Reagan verso l’idea di poter condizionare il campo socialista, ed il mutamento nelle politiche di credito di governi e banche commerciali – determinata anche da precise scelte del mondo finanziario privato. A ben vedere, vi è poi forse un contributo di carattere più generale che emerge
dalla lettura dei saggi del fascicolo: la sequenza dei fatti descritta è in larga parte autonoma dalla cornice del confronto bipolare, che pure nella seconda metà degli anni Ottanta entrava nella sua fase declinante. Nel complesso, la selezione qui presentata rende quindi conto delle molteplici radici storiche di un «consenso» il cui sviluppo va ricercato al di là della Washington trionfante al volgere del «secolo breve».

I.B. Tauris, 2018

Duccio Basosi, Giuliano Garavini and Massimiliano Trentin, eds. The oil price collapse of 1985–6 ... more Duccio Basosi, Giuliano Garavini and Massimiliano Trentin, eds. The oil price collapse of 1985–6 had momentous consequences globally: in terms of prevailing energy paradigms, the non-fossil fuel alternatives simply turned uncompetitive while huge new markets opened up for fossil fuels, particularly in China and India. In international relations, the previous talk of an OPEC ‘imperium’ was turned upside-down. Compared to the much-debated 1973 ‘oil shock’, the ‘counter-shock’ has not received the same degree of attention. This volume is the first to put the oil price ‘counter-shock’ of the mid-1980s into historical perspective. Featuring some of the most
knowledgeable experts in the field, Counter-Shock offers a balanced approach between the global picture and local study cases. In particular, it highlights the crucial interaction between the oil counter-shock and the political ‘counter-revolution’ against state intrusion in economic management, put forward by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the same period.

Cambridge Scholars, 2014

Rosa Caroli and Duccio Basosi, eds. Six decades after the end of the occupation of mainland Japan... more Rosa Caroli and Duccio Basosi, eds. Six decades after the end of the occupation of mainland Japan, this volume approaches the theme of the occupation’s legacies. Rather than just being a matter of administrative practices and international relations, the consequences of the US occupation of Japan transcended both the seven years of its formal duration and the bilateral relations between the two countries. Rich with fresh analyses on a range of topics, including transnational and comparative views on the occupation, the influence of Japan on the United States as well as the reverse, international perspectives on this “odd couple”, and the memory of the occupation in both countries, this book provides a greater understanding of the transtemporal, transnational and transcultural legacies of one of the crucial events of the 20th century.

Studio LT2, 2012

Tra la fine del 1973 e l’inizio del 1974 i prezzi del petrolio aumentarono di quattro volte, avvi... more Tra la fine del 1973 e l’inizio del 1974 i prezzi del petrolio aumentarono di quattro volte, avviando quello che fu presto battezzato lo shock petrolifero. Sulla base di documenti primari raccolti negli archivi statunitensi e di vari Paesi europei, il volume analizza come gli Stati Uniti riuscirono a trasformare una situazione critica in un’opportunità di rilancio della propria supremazia, concentrandosi sulla capacità del governo statunitense di attrarre e “riciclare” gli ingenti fondi accumulati dai Paesi produttori di petrolio. Pur con i cambiamenti quantitativi e qualitativi connessi al mutare delle situzioni, il legame tra dollaro e petrolio consolidato dagli eventi del 1973-75 continua a essere uno dei cardini del sistema economico internazionale. Il primo capitolo del volume presenta le origini della crisi petrolifera, concentrandosi in particolare sull'anno 1973, quando i rincari del prezzo del petrolio furono talmente rapidi e ingenti da far parlare di un vero e proprio shock. Il secondo capitolo presenta il quadro, assai fluido, delle interazioni tra crisi petrolifera e relazioni internazionali all'indomani dello shock. Il terzo capitolo si concentra sulla sulla vittoria statunitense nella competizione per il riciclaggio dei petrodollari. L'epilogo si concentra sugli anni 1975-78, trattando le varie tappe che, anche attraverso il consolidamento delle relazioni bilaterali tra gli Stati Uniti e i principali Paesi esportatori di greggio, condussero alla legittimazione del nuovo ordine monetario.

Polistampa, 2006

This volume deals with US policy and the end of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rates regime bet... more This volume deals with US policy and the end of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rates regime between 1969 and 1973. It is based on the records of the three secretaries that served in the US Treasury under the Nixon administration (Kennedy, Connally and Shultz) on the files of their undersecretary for Monetary Affairs (Volcker), and on White House, NSC, Federal Reserve and State Department records. From the very beginning of its term in office, the Nixon administration included the need for a different international monetary system in the broad process of reshaping of US foreign policy that would take the forms of the Nixon Doctrine, Détente, and the opening to China. US economic and political exigencies called for a "flexible" system based on the dollar, intended to serve the trends toward growing transnational investments by US companies and banks, as well as the perceived need of a diminished financial constraint on overseas military commitments. However implicitly, and with a trial and error process concerning implementation, this entailed a de facto new conception of US hegemony globally, as well as a serious clash of interests with the West European allies in particular. As West European plans, to create their own shield against monetary instability, took on growing credibility throughout 1970 with the launching of the EMU and the Werner plan, US policymakers moved towards the unilateral suspension of their commitment to Bretton Woods. This came on 15 August 1971, after months of deep internal debate within the administration, involving both economic and geopolitical reflections. The second half of 1971, as well as the year 1972, marked the beginning of a different phase. The US administration proceeded quite ruthlessly in the dismantling of the Bretton Woods system, sometimes actually using global financial instability to secure its objectives. A new conception of global American power was taking shape, and, for what concerns the Transatlantic relationship, a clearer definition of western hierarchies de facto replaced the idealistic visions of the "partnership" of the 1960s. .

Firenze University Press, 2009

Alessandra Lorini and Duccio Basosi, eds. The volume approaches Cuba as a nation that hosts a con... more Alessandra Lorini and Duccio Basosi, eds. The volume approaches Cuba as a nation that hosts a convergence of extraordinary global developments and, in turn, projects itself onto the world's major cultural, political and economic processes. From different perspectives, ranging from architecture and music to politics and economics, the twenty-one essays presented here embrace the multifaceted interactions between Cuba and foreign imperial strategies during the 19th century, the troublesome formation of national political cultures in the first half of the 20th century, and the multiple global aspects of some of Cuba's choices from the Cold War to the first decade of the present century.

Cold War History, 2023

This article contributes to the literature on the US’ and Cuba’s ‘conflicting missions’ in Africa... more This article contributes to the literature on the US’ and Cuba’s ‘conflicting missions’ in Africa by focusing on a little-known (and failed) attempt by the Jimmy Carter administration, particularly between late 1977 and the summer of 1978, to mobilize the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to pressure Cuba ‘out of Africa’. Based on a wide array of both primary and secondary sources, including declassified documents from US and French archives, this article shows that the Carter administration deployeda tactic, as yet virtually unexplored, to achieve its goal by attempting to bring about a diplomatic encirclement of Cuba inthe Third World. This was particularly in the Non-Aligned Movement, of which Havana was scheduled to host the Sixth Summit conference in 1979. This essay enriches our understanding of Carter’s approach to one of the issues which defined his presidency and sheds new light on his administration’s interactions both with Cuba and with the NAM.

Studi storici, 2023

Authors: Duccio Basosi and Benedetto Zaccaria. Abstract: At the outbreak of the “international... more Authors: Duccio Basosi and Benedetto Zaccaria.

Abstract: At the outbreak of the “international debt crisis” in 1982, the Reagan administration reacted by preparing a “strategy” that gave the IMF a central role in trying to prevent a chain of sovereign defaults which may have endangered big banks in the US and beyond. While most scholars have observed that Reagan’s policy was aimed at facilitating a “neoliberal” turn in indebted countries, in the US the Reagan plan enraged a conservative front that interpreted it as a betrayal of laissez faire and, ultimately, of Reaganism itself. This essay examines the bitter battle that Reagan waged to have Congress and his own Republican Party accept his administration’s approach. The story shows how the Reagan response to the debt crisis came about as an attempt, in some ways improvised and pragmatic, to reach an uneasy synthesis between the administration’s idealistic predilections for the “minimal State” and its need to rescue the U.S. (and international) banks.

Zapruder. Rivista di Storia della conflittualità sociale, 2023

Questo breve articolo prende in esame il modo con cui le misure economiche e monetarie intraprese... more Questo breve articolo prende in esame il modo con cui le misure economiche e monetarie intraprese ad agosto 1971 dall'amministrazione Nixon negli Stati Uniti, e gli eventi a esse immediatamente successivi, furono presentati e discussi nel discorso pubblico sovietico nei mesi a ridosso dell’evento. L'analisi del discorso pubblico sovietico permette di riflettere su come le élite politiche e intellettuali dello stato guida del mondo socialista rappresentarono uno dei momenti cruciali della storia del capitalismo novecentesco, tanto alla propria cittadinanza, quanto al nutrito pubblico dei governi alleati, dei partiti comunisti e dei “sovietologi” nel resto del mondo.

Ricerche di Storia Politica, 2023

This essay takes a critical look at US President Jimmy Carter's energy policy and high talk of «e... more This essay takes a critical look at US President Jimmy Carter's energy policy and high talk of «energy transition» in the late 1970s, which are sometimes depicted as anticipating more recent policies aimed at a post-carbon «ecological transition». Based on a wide array of both primary and secondary sources this essay shows that, while the President was indeed sensitive to environmental concerns, his priorities had little to do with present-day concerns with global warming. Premised on the belief that the high energy prices of the 1970s reflected an «impending scarcity» of oil and gas, Carter's policies paradoxically helped relaunch the consumption of fossil fuels which characterized the 1980s.

Rivista Italiana di Storia Internazionale, 2020

The essay presents a critical review of the literature on the «debt crisis» of the 1980s. In part... more The essay presents a critical review of the literature on the «debt crisis» of the 1980s. In particular, it shows how such a long and critical episode in the international political economy of the late 20th century, long interpreted in a «linear» fashion that considered the «Washington consensus» a foregone conclusion, has come to be reinterpreted in more complex and nuanced ways after the outbreak of the 2008 global economic crisis. On this basis, the article concludes by proposing a set of research themes and approaches for a further deepening of our knowledge on the subject.

Rivista Italiana di Storia Internazionale, 2020

Journal of Energy History/Revue d'Histoire de l'Énergie, n. 3, 2019

Petrodollars – the dollars accumulated by oil-producing countries as revenues for oil exports – a... more Petrodollars – the dollars accumulated by oil-producing countries as revenues for oil exports – are usually considered key to our understanding of the renewal and transformation of US power during the 1970s. Yet, in the context of a large and expanding literature, in which the essence of such power is described by terms as diverse as dominance, hegemony, empire or pax americana, scholars hold different views as to the precise nature of the link established between petrodollars and US power at the time. After reviewing the state of the literature, this essay discusses the issue based on declassified documents from US and British national archives by focusing on the way Saudi Arabian authorities allocated their vast oil earnings. While conclusive evidence is still lacking, it appears likely that Saudi choices were shaped by US diplomatic démarches and economic inducements, as well as by US offers of an ambivalent military “protection”.
https://energyhistory.eu/fr/dossier/oil-dollars-and-us-power-1970s-re-viewing-connections

Rivista italiana di storia internazionale, 2019

Presentazione e discussione dell'articolo di Matthew Connelly, 'State Secrecy, Archival Negligenc... more Presentazione e discussione dell'articolo di Matthew Connelly, 'State Secrecy, Archival Negligence, and the End of History as We Know It', Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, 2018.

Passato & Presente, 2017

Fidel Castro: History, myth and demonology. The media all over the world met the news of the pass... more Fidel Castro: History, myth and demonology. The media all over the world met the news of the passing of Fidel Castro, on 25 November 2016, with extremely polarized commentaries on his legacy. This essay argues that historians in the future can contribute to a better understanding of those aspects and episodes of his long career as revolutionary and head of state that have made him such a controversial figure. At the same time, it appears that Fidel Castro fully belonged to the political left of the 20th century, as he constantly emphasized equality as the basis of all emancipation , and collective over individual subjects as far as instances of freedom were concerned. In that sense, polarized commentaries do not reflect misunderstandings about his life as much as diverging opinions on his politics.

IAEE Energy Forum, 2015

On the road of the low-carbon energy transition there are still many obstacles, both in terms of ... more On the road of the low-carbon energy transition there are still many obstacles, both in terms of political
will, and in terms of technology and infrastructure (suffice it to think of the problems of the electricity
grids, challenged by the passage from a few large suppliers to many decentralized suppliers from photovoltaic
plants). If anything, the story of the early 1980s shows that an incipient transition can be stopped
and reversed and that a fall in oil prices, like the one of 2015, may be an ingredient of the turnaround. At the same time, the
same story also shows that if low oil prices are not necessarily good news on the way for the transition,
the factors involved are many and the game remains open.

Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 2010

During his term in office, US President Jimmy Carter made several symbolic gestures to show his s... more During his term in office, US President Jimmy Carter made several symbolic gestures to show his support to European integration. In particular, in December 1978 he warmly endorsed the European Monetary System. This seemed coherent with Carter's focus on multilateralism and, more precisely, on the 'trilateral' partnership between the US, Western Europe and Japan. Declassified documents show, however, that such endorsement only came after careful observation of the characteristics of the EMS and after discrete diplomatic pressures on the Europeans to ensure that the EMS would not impinge on the global role of the US dollar. .

Italia contemporanea, 2005

The fall of the Bretton Woods international monetary system, in 1971, has often been interpreted ... more The fall of the Bretton Woods international monetary system, in 1971, has often been interpreted as a defeat of politics – namely the choices of United States – on the part of economic forces. The documents of the Nixon presidency (1969-74), declassified at the National Archives of the United States, allow the adoption of a different perspective. The monetary instability of the second half of the 1960's, made it possible for the new republican administration to develop, since 1969, lines of thought and policies, aimed at abandoning the “embedded liberalism”of Bretton Woods, in the name of a return to more traditional laissez faire practices. Influenced by important foreign policy considerations as well, the neo-liberal international economic choices of the Nixon administration anticipated by a decade those of Ronald Reagan, and contributed to pave them the way. The contents of this essay have been analyzed in greater detail in the monograph "Il governo del dollaro. Interdipendenza economica e potere statunitense negli anni di Richard Nixon" (Firenze, 2006).

Storia delle Relazioni Internazionali, 2003

L'articolo discute, sulla base di documenti declassificati dell'amministrazione statunitense di R... more L'articolo discute, sulla base di documenti declassificati dell'amministrazione statunitense di Richard Nixon (1969-74), le multiple ragioni che condussero Nixon a decretare la fine del sistema monetario di Bretton Woods, con particolare riferimento al ruolo dell'Europa occidentale nei disegni della politica estera statunitense. I temi trattati nell'articolo sono stati approfonditi nel volume monografico "Il governo del dollaro. Interdipendenza economica e potere statunitense negli anni di Richard Nixon" (Firenze, 2006).

in M. Mugnaini (a cura di), UN System. Temi e problemi di storia internazionale, Franco Angeli, 2023

Complice l'onda lunga della crisi economica globale del 2008, da alcuni anni la storiografia sta ... more Complice l'onda lunga della crisi economica globale del 2008, da alcuni anni la storiografia sta tornando con crescente attenzione sulla vicenda del Nuovo ordine economico internazionale (NOEI), il progetto che, con il fine dichiarato di favorire quelli che allora venivano definiti "Paesi in via di sviluppo" (PVS) o Paesi del Terzo Mondo, tra gli anni Sessanta e Settanta del Novecento puntò a riformare, senza successo, un'economia politica internazionale in via di rapida globalizzazione. Questo saggio presenta un quadro dello stato dell'arte della ricerca relativa all'impatto del confronto sul NOEI sulle principali organizzazioni internazionali.

in S. Gross, A. Needham (eds.), New Energies. A History of Energy Transitions in Europe and America, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2023

Based on research in multiple languages on both scholarly works, publications for mass circulatio... more Based on research in multiple languages on both scholarly works, publications for mass circulation and political discourse, the article shows how during the 1970s “energy transition” – with some variants as “energy revolution” and “energy substitution” – first emerged in a North-Atlantic environment and then became a crucial phrase worldwide, used both to interpret the past, to describe the present and to shape the future. The denaturalization of the relation between human beings and energy was by no means a minor fact, and indeed present-day debates about energy and energy policies owe much to those of the 1970s. At the same time, among the legacies of those debates, there was also the potential for the notion of “transition” to obscure our understanding of energy past and future trends: seldom defined in precise ways, the phrase soon became a buzzword, signifying many different contents and concealing real contradictions between different meanings associated to it. While this was perhaps unavoidable, such vagueness did not come without problems.

in M.L. Picchio Forlati, R. Petri (a cura di), L'Europa a cent'anni dalla Prima guerra mondiale, Torino, Giappichelli, 2020

Il capitolo passa attraverso un vaglio critico il recente dibattito sulle fortune dell'atlantismo... more Il capitolo passa attraverso un vaglio critico il recente dibattito sulle fortune dell'atlantismo all'inizio del XXI secolo. L’aggregato formato da Stati Uniti e Unione europea si è collocato, lungo i primi due decenni del XXI secolo, al vertice delle gerarchie economiche e politiche mondiali: comprendere le dinamiche in corso nelle relazioni atlantiche e i discorsi che possono influenzarne gli sviluppi futuri è condizione necessaria per la comprensione della politica internazionale contemporanea nel suo complesso.

In I. Ness, Z. Cope (eds), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2021

“Dollar hegemony” is a loosely defined phrase, usually referring to historically determined conte... more “Dollar hegemony” is a loosely defined phrase, usually referring to historically determined contexts in which the US dollar is adopted as the main international reserve instrument, unit of account, and means of payment. Throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first century, it has been used to describe a number of different situations, namely some regional contexts in the Atlantic area in the 1920s and 1930s, the non-Communist world between 1945 and 1989, and the entire global economy afterward. While originally used almost exclusively in the journalistic jargon in continental Europe, the phrase has progressively “gained currency” with broader audiences, globalizing in both a linguistic and a social sense. In this entry, I move from words to meanings in an attempt to show how the notion of “dollar hegemony” has evolved over time, what specific situations it has been applied to, and what political and intellectual messages were attached to its use – or to eschewing its use – in different historical and geographical contexts.

The oil price collapse of 1985-86 had momentous consequences globally: in terms of prevailing ene... more The oil price collapse of 1985-86 had momentous consequences globally: in terms of prevailing energy paradigms, the non-fossil fuel alternatives simply turned uncompetitive while huge new markets opened up for fossil fuels, particularly in China and India. In international relations, the previous talk of an OPEC `imperium' was turned upside-down. This volume is the first to put the oil price `counter-shock' of the mid-1980s into historical perspective. Compared to the much-debated 1973 `oil shock', the `counter-shock' has not received the same degree of attention. The fall in oil prices and the consequences for different nations have traditionally been seen simply as the result of the marketplace finally making its way into the energy realm after years of `politicised' conflicts. The contributors show that the `counter-shock' was the result of a set of processes that had developed over the previous ten years in a number of fields: from pricing mechanisms to intra-OPEC discipline; from Saudi Arabia's policies as a producer to America's policies as a consumer; from expectations nurtured by politicians across the globe to ideas about development and environment; from relations between the National Oil Companies and their respective governments to international financial relations. Featuring some of the most knowledgeable experts in the field, this book deals with these issues with a balanced approach between the global picture and local study cases. In particular, it highlights the crucial interaction between the oil counter-shock and the political `counter-revolution' against state intrusion in economic management put forward by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the same period.

in D. Basosi, G. Garavini, M. Trentin (eds.), Counter-shock. The Oil Counter-Revolution of the 1980s, 2018

By taking a broader outlook on the energy debate of the 1970s and early 1980s, this chapter revie... more By taking a broader outlook
on the energy debate of the 1970s and early 1980s, this chapter reviews
the main works of intellectuals and scientists as well as the official
discourses on future energy scenarios made at government level, with an
emphasis on how these were crystallised in official multilateral forums.
As is shown in the first section, the generalised talk of ,energy transition,
in the 1970s and early 1980s did open a window of opportunity for
renewable energies worldwide. But the actual size of that window appears to have always been relatively small, both in the public debate and in the scenarios depicted by public authorities, as is shown in the second and third sections respectively. Furthermore, as shown in the fourth section, a close analysis reveals that the support for renewable energies – just like that for the more general concept of "energy transition" – was often founded on the fear of an imminent exhaustion of oil reserves, which was easily disproved by the "oil glut" of the early 1980s. As the concluding section summarises, the counter-shock did close the window. But the clash between fossil fuels and renewables had never really been a titanic one and, to the extent that renewables had been promoted as part of the solution to a false problem, it is not surprising that interest in them declined for a while, once the misunderstanding became clear.

In R. Caroli, A. Trampus (a cura di), I rapporti internazionali nei 150 anni di storia di Ca’ Foscari, 2018

Since its creation in 1868, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice has always entertained relations wit... more Since its creation in 1868, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice has always entertained relations with the world located outside Italy’s borders, either through the physical exchanges of teachers and students, or through more abstract connections involving the production and circulation of ideas. This essay maps Ca’ Foscari’s ‘international relations’ throughout its first one-hundred years (1868-1968) and links the various distinct phases in the development of the University’s cross-border connections with the coterminous foreign policies of the Italian state and national narratives about Italy’s place and destiny in the world.

In Rosella Mamoli Zorzi e Simone Francescato (eds.), American Phantasmagoria. Modes of representation in US culture, 2017

The first section shows that the presence of ghosts in the foreign policy decision making process... more The first section shows that the presence of ghosts in the foreign policy decision making processes of both the United States and the Soviet Union has been detected mainly in relatively recent works. The second, third and fourth sections are dedicated to distinguishing between three different kinds of apparitions—ghosts of the past, specters of the future, and phantasmagorias, respectively. The concluding section attempts some reflections on the possible meanings of such interest of Cold War historiography for spectral figures, particularly in connection with the ongoing debates about the “very notion of Cold War.”

In B. Bagnato, M. Guderzo, L. Nuti (a cura di), Nuove questioni di storia delle relazioni internazionali. Saggi in onore di Ennio Di Nolfo, 2015

L’analisi condotta in questo saggio mostra una serie di istanze nelle quali il volume "Limits of ... more L’analisi condotta in questo saggio mostra una serie di istanze nelle quali il volume "Limits of Growth" (1972) ebbe un’influenza documentata, sebbene non sempre diretta, su alcune scelte specifiche dell’amministrazione statunitense di Jimmy Carter (1977-81), permettendo di osservare, da una prospettiva di storia intellettuale,
l’azione politica di un presidente ancora controverso. In particolare,
il saggio documenta una contraddizione tra l’adozione, da parte
dell’amministrazione Carter, di un malthusianesimo «moderato»
sul piano analitico e l’adozione di accenti catastrofistici sul piano
dell’impostazione della politica energetica. Ravvisando in tale contraddizione una delle ragioni della sconfitta delle politiche impostate
da Carter, il saggio mette in luce uno dei paradossi di quello che
Ennio Di Nolfo ha chiamato «l’impero tecnologico» dell’inizio del
XXI secolo, in grado di proiettare la sua influenza globale (anche)
grazie a una supremazia tecnologica acquisita in risposta alla «crisi
energetica» degli anni Settanta del Novecento, eppure ancora largamente dipendente dalla stessa fonte energetica fossile, il petrolio,
che Jimmy Carter aveva promesso di abbandonare.

In K. Patel, K. Weisbrode (eds.), European Integration and the Atlantic Community in the 1980s, Cambridge University Press, 2013

This chapter explores the attitudes taken by the governments of the member states of the European... more This chapter explores the attitudes taken by the governments of the member states of the European Community (EC) vis-à-vis what the political scientist - and former member of Reagan's National Security Council (NSC) staff - Henry Nau once called "international Reaganomics," that is Reaganomics' approach to and consequences on the international economy. In particular, the chapter focuses on the years between 1981 and 1985, when the U.S. administration pursued its economic policies in a unilateralist fashion.

In A. Kalinovsky, S. Radchenko (eds.), The End of the Cold War and the Third World, London, Routledge, 2011

During the 1980s, virtually all major Latin American countries were involved in a vicious cycle o... more During the 1980s, virtually all major Latin American countries were involved in a vicious cycle of indebtedness, hyperinflation, austerity, stagnation and new indebtedness. The immediate causes, and the size of the debt itself, varied from country to country, but the analogies prevailed to the point that the 1980s entered Latin America’s collective memory as ‘the lost decade’. This article uses the Latin American debt crisis as a sort of local prism to interpret the global significance of the very different attitudes taken on the occasion by the United States and the Soviet Union. In general, the story of the Latin American debt crisis highlights that a US-centred unipolar order had already emerged in a vast area of the Third World, almost one decade before the ‘official’ end of the US-Soviet bipolar confrontation.

In F. Bisutti, P. Masiero, A Rosella. Saggi in onore di Rosella Mamoli Zorzi, Supernova, 2014

Questo saggio analizza le descrizioni di Venezia annotate da due presidenti statunitensi, il demo... more Questo saggio analizza le descrizioni di Venezia annotate da due presidenti statunitensi, il democratico Jimmy Carter (1977-81) e il repubblicano Ronald Reagan (1981-89), in occasione delle rispettive visite alla città. I due visitarono Venezia a distanza di sette anni l'uno dall'altro, nel 1980 e nel 1987, in occasione dei due vertici dei Paesi capitalistici più industrializzati (i cosiddetti G7) tenutisi nella città lagunare. Sebbene le due visite veneziane siano state quasi ignorate da parte dei biografi presidenziali, tali testimonianze non sembrano prive di interesse. Naturalmente le visite videro i due presidenti costretti all'interno di un protocollo prestabilito e di misure sicurezza assai rigide, con migliaia di uomini armati a sorvegliare su di loro. Nondimeno, esse posero i due presidenti a contatto con la città che, come ha scritto il critico letterario Tony Tanner, forse più di ogni altra “solleva domande sulle relazioni tra cultura e natura, arte e vita, scrittura e desiderio”. Analizzare le testimonianze dei due presidenti su una città così densa di significati (anche, e forse soprattutto, per l'immaginario statunitense) permette non solo di ricostruire due episodi poco noti delle loro rispettive biografie, ma anche di fare luce, da un punto d'osservazione peculiare, sul cambiamento culturale verificatosi alla Casa Bianca con la vittoria di Reagan, proprio ai danni di Carter, alle presidenziali del novembre 1980.

In Grzegorz Kosc, Clara Juncker, Sharon Monteith, Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson (eds.), "The Transatlantic Sixties Europe and the United States in the Counterculture Decade", Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld, 2013

The study of the way US administrations form and present to the public their visions of foreign l... more The study of the way US administrations form and present to the public their visions of foreign lands helps addressing both the general theme of the relations between ideology and foreign policy, and the more specific themes of the relations between mental maps and foreign policy, and na-tional identity and foreign policy. Based on Kennedy's public speeches as well as on declassified documents from his administration, this essay will analyze Kennedy’s image of Europe.

In Angelo Baracca, Jürgen Renn, Helge Wendt (eds.), The History of Physics in Cuba, Springer, 2014

In M. Campus (ed.), Sviluppo, crisi, integrazione. Temi di storia delle relazioni internazionali per il XXI secolo, Milano, BRUNO MONDADORI, 2012

Gli anni compresi tra il 1968 e il 1980, qui chiamati per brevità “gli anni settanta”, furono car... more Gli anni compresi tra il 1968 e il 1980, qui chiamati per brevità “gli anni settanta”, furono caratterizzati dal prevalere in tutto il mondo dell’impressione che l’ordine globale fosse entrato in una fase di grandi sommovimenti, tali da mettere in crisi la supremazia degli Stati Uniti. Considerando l’ampiezza dell’arco di tempo considerato e della platea chiamata a esprimersi sul tema, è ovvio che non si trattò di una interpretazione monolitica: essa, anzi, variò in intensità nel corso del decennio, subì varie e importanti contestazioni, e presentò spesso un carattere ambiguo dal punto di vista politico, essendo fatta propria, sul piano retorico, sia da chi si augurava di creare un orientamento culturale adatto a accelerare il processo, sia da chi cercava di lanciare l’allarme per scongiurarne le conseguenze. Nondimeno, l’idea degli anni settanta come un “decennio di crisi” del potere statunitense si è tramandata a lungo nella memoria, fino essere recepita anche in buona parte delle prime riflessioni storiografiche dedicate al periodo in questione. Questo saggio presenta una sintesi ragionata dello stato dell'arte in materia. Esso mostra che la storiografia ha progressivamente restituito l’immagine del decennio come di un periodo ricco di sfide e difficoltà per il potere statunitense, ma anche di opportunità di rinnovamento dello stesso, e ha valorizzato al contempo il ruolo di una serie di processi strutturali, già in moto negli anni settanta, nel determinare i rapporti di forza emersi nel decennio successivo.

In A. Lorini, D. Basosi (eds.), Cuba in the World, The World in Cuba. Essays in Cuban History, Politics, and Culture, Firenze, Firenze University Press, 2009

The article deals with Cuban foreign policy during the 1980s, and in particular with Fidel Castro... more The article deals with Cuban foreign policy during the 1980s, and in particular with Fidel Castro's campaign against Latin American foreign debts. It shows how that campaing allowed Cuba to pull out of isolation even when Latin America seemed closest to the "Washington consensus".

in E. Baroncelli, M. Del Pero, A. Fiori, A. Pallotti (eds.), Crisi, trasformazioni, continuità. Il sistema internazionale negli anni Settanta, Soveria Mannelli, Rubettino, 2012

Questo saggio analizza l'intreccio tra crisi energetica e cambiamento del sistema monetario inter... more Questo saggio analizza l'intreccio tra crisi energetica e cambiamento del sistema monetario internazionale alla luce della documentazione primaria statunitense oggi disponibile e ponendo particolare enfasi proprio sul modo nel quale il dollar standard a cambi flessibili si affermò come successore di Bretton Woods, nella convinzione che il 'come' di tale passaggio sia di primaria importanza per chi voglia interpretare le ragioni che condussero, nel corso del decennio, al rafforzamento di un potere globale statunitense che era a lungo sembrato in crisi negli anni precedenti. Il primo paragrafo colloca l'esplosione della crisi petrolifera nel contesto della fine del sistema di Bretton Woods e dei conflitti che essa aveva generato tra Stati Uniti, Europa occidentale, Giappone e Pvs. Il secondo paragrafo analizza le strategie messe in campo dai vari soggetti per affrontare la crisi e, all'interno di questo contesto, l'emergere del tema dei rischi e delle opportunità connesse all'accumulazione di enormi surplus da parte dei Paesi produttori. Il terzo paragrafo si concentra sul successo ottenuto dalla strategia statunitense, nel corso del 1974, rispetto a simili strategie concorrenti, nell'approccio unilaterale ai Paesi produttori al fine di garantire l'investimento dei surplus petroliferi negli Stati Uniti, tanto nei mercati finanziari newyorchesi quanto, e soprattutto, nei titoli di Stato offerti dal dipartimento del Tesoro. Il quarto paragrafo valuta come tale successo fosse strumentale al governo statunitense a ottenere, dopo anni di dispute, l'agognata legittimazione del sistema monetario uscito dalla crisi di Bretton Woods. Il quinto e conclusivo paragrafo osserva come il 'nuovo' sistema monetario internazionale avesse un carattere gerarchico e conservatore, coerente con gli orientamenti politici delle amministrazioni repubblicane statunitensi della prima metà del decennio. L'amministrazione democratica di Jimmy Carter (1977-1980), in carica al momento dell'entrata in vigore del nuovo regime, ebbe nei confronti di questo un atteggiamento ambivalente che si concluse tuttavia, dopo alcune oscillazioni, con politiche votate al mantenimento del dollar standard e dei privilegi che esso garantiva al mondo finanziario statunitense. I contenuti del saggio sono approfonditi nel volume "Finanza e Petrolio. Gli Stati Uniti, l'oro nero e l'economia politica internazionale" (Venezia, 2012).

In E. Vezzosi, R. Baritono (eds.), Oltre il secolo americano? Gli Stati Uniti prima e dopo l'11 settembre, Roma, Carocci, 2011

The article analyzes the continuities and discontinuities in the US economy from the 1980s to the... more The article analyzes the continuities and discontinuities in the US economy from the 1980s to the end of 2010, with an emphasis on the interplay between the economic and the strategic/military choices made by successive US administrations throughout the period.

In M.L. Napolitano, M.E. Guasconi, M. Cricco (eds.), L'America Latina tra guerra fredda e globalizzazione, Firenze, Polistampa, 2010

Based on declassified documents from the Reagan Presidential Library, the essay deals with the de... more Based on declassified documents from the Reagan Presidential Library, the essay deals with the de facto unipolarism enjoed by the United States in the management of the Latin American debt crisis in the 1980s.

In G. Scott-Smith, V. Aubourg (eds.), Atlantic, Euratlantic, or Europe-America? The Atlantic Community and the European Idea from Kennedy to Nixon, Paris, Soleb, 2011

Based on an array of primary sources from the Nixon administration, this chapter argues that the ... more Based on an array of primary sources from the Nixon administration, this chapter argues that the divergence in the respective interests of the US and the West Europeans was not a consequence of the end of Bretton Woods but, rather, one of its main causes. Diverging economic and foreign policy interests and priorities among the allies, coupled with the inability to reconcile such differences by cooperative means, eventually led to Nixon acting unilaterally to rescind the gold-dollar link. The idealistic expectations of the previous decades, symbolised by the many references to an imagined Atlantic Community, gave way to more rational calculations about the mutual advantages and disadvantages of the security relationship, punctuated with a greater awareness of potential economic conflicts. The contents of this essay have been analyzed in greater detail in the monograph "Il governo del dollaro. Interdipendenza economica e potere statunitense negli anni di Richard Nixon" (Firenze, 2006).

Ricerche di storia politica, 2023

ARO - Annali Recensioni Online , 2023

S-USIH Book Reviews, 2023

Annali Recensioni Online, 2019

Ricerche di storia politica, 2017

Journal of Contemporary History, 2012

Il Mestiere di Storico, 2016

Annali Recensioni Online, 2019

H-Net Reviews, 2015

The Oxford Handbook of the Italian Economy since Unification, edited by Gianni Toniolo, is the re... more The Oxford Handbook of the Italian Economy since Unification, edited by Gianni Toniolo, is the result of a collective research on Italy's “modern economic growth” conducted by Italian and international scholars, as well as members of the research departments of the Bank of Italy, on the occasion of the sesquicentennial of the country's political unification. Based on the papers presented at the international conference “Italy and the World Economy, 1861-2011” hosted by the Bank of Italy in October 2011, the volume is composed of twenty-one chapters, most of which are coauthored by both Italian and non-Italian authors; a rich final bibliography; and some eighty-five pages of quantitative data on the Italian economy since 1861. As stressed by the editor (p. 4), such data are the fresh findings of recent quantitative research in a number of fields, and include new statistics on national accounts, productivity, and welfare indicators, as well as new measures of various economica...

Il Mestiere di Storico, 2016

Il Mestiere di Storico , 2015

L'Indice dei libri del mese, 2016

Il Mestiere di Storico, 2014

Mestiere di Storico, 2012

Il Mestiere di Storico, 2011

Approfondimenti - ADL Cobas, 2020

Seminario The United States in the Crisis of Neoliberalism: Domestic and International Reflection... more Seminario The United States in the Crisis of Neoliberalism: Domestic and International Reflections, parte del ciclo Anarchia o Cooperazione: Come sarà il mondo di domani. Il seminario si terrà venerdì 24 novembre ore 11-13 presso il Padiglione Morgagni-Gaddi, del campus di Forlì (Università di Bologna), con interventi di Gary Gerstle (University of Cambridge, UK), Duccio Basosi (Università Ca Foscari, Venezia), Angela Romano (Università di Bologna).

Fondazione “Luigi Micheletti” - Centro di storia dell’ambiente con la collaborazione di Gses – G... more Fondazione “Luigi Micheletti” - Centro di storia dell’ambiente

con la collaborazione di Gses – Gruppo di storia dell’energia solare
Associazione Energia felice
con il contributo di Centoraggi – Società cooperativa
e con il patrocinio di Sisam - Società italiana di storia ambientale
Comune di Brescia

organizza il convegno

1973: l’oil shock e la svolta ecologica mancata
Una lezione per il presente

Martedì 7 novembre 2023
Sala del Camino, Palazzo Martinengo delle Palle
via San Martino della Battaglia 18, Brescia

This conference is organized in the framework of the FIRB Project 2010 The Engines of Growth. Ide... more This conference is organized in the framework of the FIRB Project 2010 The Engines of Growth. Ideally it is the follow-up to our 2013 conference “Pivotal Year: the 1973 Oil Shock and its Global Significance”, which highlighted the wide systemic significance of the rise in oil prices, forty years after 1973. The “countershock” of 1985-86 has not received the same degree of attention on the part of historians. Both the fall of oil prices and its consequences in terms of winners and losers have traditionally been seen as the result of the work of the “magic of the marketplace”: in terms of the energy paradigm, the non-fossil alternatives simply proved non-competitive; in terms of international relations, the previous attempt on the part of oil producing countries to exploit their oligopoly proved self-defeating because high prices had only allowed more countries to drill and produce. Three decades later, however, such an explanation can be tested against a set of questions: Was the confirmation of the centrality of oil in the world energy panorama the consequence of the downfall of prices or could the reverse be (also) true? Did perceptions of “geopolitical stakes” being involved in the changes in oil prices play any role in the behavior of any of the actors involved (producing countries, consuming countries, international organizations)? What was the role, if any, of private businesses and collective movements in re-establishing the centrality of oil and its low price? What was, finally, the relationship between the oil countershock and the triumph of the Reagan-Thatcher “neoliberal” counterrevolution? The conference aims at answering such questions by taking a fresh and multidisciplinary look at the events. During three days of open debate we hope to be able to produce a more nuanced picture of both the origins and the consequences of the oil countershock. Full program at: http://virgo.unive.it/eog/?p=2393.

""Solo una prospettiva parziale consente una visione oggettiva”, scriveva Donna Haraway (1991). O... more ""Solo una prospettiva parziale consente una visione oggettiva”, scriveva Donna Haraway (1991). Ogni narrazione, infatti, è un “taglio del caos”, una selezione della complessità esistente sulla cui base creare nuovi significati e nuovi posizionamenti.
Il convegno “De-Scrivere la crisi / De-Scribing the Crisis” nasce dal desiderio di aprire un dialogo tra scienziati sociali, economisti, letterati, teorici del linguaggio e delle arti visive sul tema della crisi economica in Europa. Una parola a lungo usata per descrivere una condotta monastica basata sulla rinuncia - austerità - è oggi l'oggetto del discorso politico in un continente percorso dall'incertezza e dall'inquietudine. Che cosa significa austerità? Chi sono i soggetti del discorso pubblico? Quali sono i significati, le immagini e le condotte che il discorso pubblico vuole produrre? Quali sono, infine, le contro-narrazioni che nascono negli interstizi ed eccedono i significati legittimi?
Con questo convegno intendiamo porre al centro dell'analisi le narrazioni della crisi in diversi ambiti geografici e discorsivi. È nostro desiderio attraversare le figurazioni visive del presente, percorrendo da Sud a Nord il continente mentre riscrive la propria storia tra narrazioni egemoniche, percorsi fuori-griglia e nuove cartografie del futuro.""