News Analysis: Is soft power playing central role for Italy's development?

Italian authorities see soft power as one of the assets to increase Italy's influence in the world, but much more could be done to exploit the country's attraction potential which is centered on its millenary culture, experts said.

Presently Italy is in a quite good position as regards soft power, Raffaele Marchetti, an international relations professor at LUISS University in Rome, told Xinhua in a recent interview. However, in his view much more can be done to exploit the resources and tools to increase the country's soft power.

"The world has a natural goodwill and attraction for Italy's culture. Just to make an example, Italian is one of the most studied languages in London and Tokyo, though it is not certainly studied for business, but just for passion," Marchetti noted.

Culture is the central element of the Italian soft power which is declined in many different aspects, from diplomatic policy to capacity for dialogue, he said. "The image of contemporary Italy is that of a pacific country, which derives from a cultural approach to international issues," he added.

According to Marchetti, Italian citizens living abroad are a "soft power multiplication factor" as both Italian communities and the many Italians holding important posts in cultural circles or international organizations abroad have played a fundamental role in spreading the Italian soft power influence especially in recent times.

In fact Italians are particularly good at making culture central in big events, as the recent world exposition held in Milan showed, he said. For all these reasons, international soft power classifications have placed Italy at quite high ranks. Different governments have certainly had different impacts on Italian soft power, which however has a more stable strength than the changeable influence of single governments, the professor told Xinhua.

Marchetti also underlined that the issue becomes more problematic when it comes to economy. He noted that Italian companies are considered to be creative and innovative, but the Italian industrial system has many weak points and the public debt is very high. But "never undervalue soft power, which is fundamental for each country's development," he said.

Italian politicians have pursued using soft power to reach national goals. Italian President Sergio Mattarella in his recent official visit to the United States emphasized Italy's contribution to the United Nations ideals and missions to reinforce his country's candidacy to the 15-member UN Security Council.

On June 28 the UN General Assembly will vote to elect the new non-permanent members to the Security Council for the years 2017-2018. The Italian president said that though his meetings at the UN headquarters earlier this month were not the occasion for electoral campaigning, a goal like a non-permanent seat can be reached only through good relations and by building consensus.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has frequently recalled Italy's typical attitude of using soft power to address international issues and crises.

"Italy is not hiding, it is in many theaters, but does so without resounding statements: we need our typical attitude, more of soft power than hard power," Renzi said after the Paris attacks last November. "I think, believe and hope that Italy can react not with calm but with wisdom and balance," he added.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni in his address to the 11th Conference of Ambassadors which gathered 131 Italian heads of mission in Rome last July also reaffirmed how openness to dialogue remains the guiding light of his country's foreign policy. "This is our soft power, an economic, cultural and lifestyle soft power," he said.

In 2012, the then prime minister Mario Monti at a public conference defined soft power as "a modern activity which uses the leverage of the traditional capacities of Italians," namely their very much appreciated "creativity which derives from Italy's ancient culture." Endit