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FrancoAngeli Journals

Studies and research

No. 310 (2026): special issue

Détente, the Mediterranean and the Territorialisation of the Sea: Italy and the Shifts in Maritime Security, 1965-77

  • Fabio De Ninno
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/IC2026-310-S1OA-006
Submitted
maggio 6, 2026
Published
2026-06-25

Abstract

The article investigates the transformation of Italian maritime security in the Central Mediterranean between 1965 and 1977, at the intersection of détente, trade globalisation, and the territorialisation of the sea. Its core argument is that the process of drawing maritimeborders was not merely a legal adjustment but a political and strategic process that reshaped threat perceptions, operational priorities, and security culture. Drawing on Italian governmental, military, and diplomatic archives, as well as on Nato, British, French, and U.S. documentation, the essay reconstructs continental shelf negotiations, fisheries disputes, and incidents at sea around the Strait of Sicily. The analysis identifies a shift from a naval model, oriented towards general bloc warfare, to a doctrine of continuous maritime presence, focused on control and economic protection. A first innovative contribution is the reassessment of fisheries surveillance missions, considered as a laboratory of doctrinal and organisational adaptation rather than as peripheral tasks. A second contribution concerns the relationship between North African assertiveness and Soviet power: Mediterranean tensions are shown to stem not only from superpower rivalry but also from autonomous regional and postcolonial dynamics. In this framework, the 1975 Naval Law and the 1977 Defence White Paper marked the institutionalisation of maritime frontiers within Italian Republic’s defense planning over this period.

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