Abstract

This article aims to delineate the policy promoted by the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) towards Siad Barre’s Somalia, from the latter’s assumption of power in 1969 to the Somali crisis of the early 1990s. By drawing upon documents from the Fondazione Filippo Turati in Florence and the Fondazione Bettino Craxi in Rome, and situating itself within the renewed historiographical landscape that increasingly focuses on non-state actors in international affairs, the essay seeks to analyze the close relationship between the PSI and Somalia. In particular, the article focuses on the motivations behind this bond, while also paying attention to the influence it exerted on Italy’s foreign policy in the region. Furthermore, it explores how the PSI became the Italian political formation most involved in sustaining, directing, and shaping the long-lasting Italian interests towards Somalia.