Craxi-Andreotti e la Ostpolitik italiana

The intense period of Craxi’s government (1983-1987) was characterised by a new, even
unique activity of Italy on the international scene. In that very period, the country tried to
assume a role guaranteeing the “international concert”, significantly weakened earlier by the
mechanisms of the Cold War. The goal of this new policy of détente was – both for Bettino
Craxi and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Giulio Andreotti – a greater engagement of Italy in
the relations with the countries from behind the Iron Curtain. This is the origin of the Italian
Ostpolitik, which – seen in this text both as a whole and as a collection of its particular stages
of growth – finds a lasting and unique understanding of its basic qualifications in the easing of
bilateral relations with Jaruzelski’s Poland and their further development.