The Istituto Affari Internazionali as non-state actor for Italy's foreign policy?

The Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) is an example of a think tank working in the field of Italy’s foreign and defence policy since its establishment in 1965. This paper presents an empirical analysis of the IAI’s activities, working from the Institute’s archives and interviews with its founding members and leading personalities. This paper also draws from existing literature on think tanks, in order to understand how a non-state actor like the IAI can contribute to shaping a state’s foreign and defence policy.

Revised version of the work “L’Istituto Affari Internazionali attore della politica estera italiana? Problematiche di analisi di un attore non statale” elaborated and presented by Jean-Pierre Darnis and Carolina De Simone at the XXVIII Annual Conference of the Italian Political Science Association (SISP), held in Perugia on 11-13 September 2014.