THE ITALIAN GEOPOLITICAL AND GEO-ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES BEHIND THE CREATION OF THE ALPS-ADRIATIC WORKING COMMUNITY

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to study the geopolitical and geo-economic perspectives and incentives relating to the creation of the Alps-Adriatic Working Community from the point of view of the Italian state and Italian regions. According to the first thesis behind the launching of the initiative, there were political will and economic constraint. According to the second thesis, the cooperation was subservient for every member, thus the economic differences may decrease between the regions within the territory of the cooperation. The results show that the opening towards the Central-European region was not unique and not the first in the Italian foreign policy. There were also political wills such as the ideas of the center-left leadership in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. There were economic constraints as well on both national and regional level. In the 1970s, Italy was struck by economic crisis and some regions wanted to come out from the peripheral situation. Due to the lack of data, the essay can not answer issues about the change of economic differences, however, it has proven that the relative values of the founding Italian regions decreased after they had given up cooperating in the region.