Replication Data for: The war that wasn't there? Framing Italy’s “peace mission” in Afghanistan

Factors as culture, values and symbols are crucial to understand the evolution of the Italian foreign and defence policy. However, scholars’ attention to cultural variables in the study of Italian defence policies still leaves many gaps. This paper is a contribution towards closing such gap. Since the end of the Cold War Italian troops have been constantly engaged in military operations abroad spreading a “peacekeeper image” of Italy in the international arena. The aim of this work is to investigate the features and the evolution of the main strategic narratives adopted by political leaders to interpret the Italian military involvement in Afghanistan. How did politicians craft strategic narratives on the Afghan mission? How did these story lines influence public opinion during the conflict? How can we explain the drop of consensus occurred? In order to answer these questions this paper relies on polls and content analysis of parliamentary debates (2001-2011).

诸如文化、价值观与符号等因素，对于理解意大利外交与国防政策的演进至关重要。然而，学界在意大利国防政策研究中对文化变量的关注仍存在诸多空白。本文旨在填补这一研究缺口。自冷战结束以来，意大利军队持续参与海外军事行动，在国际舞台上塑造了意大利的“维和者形象”。本研究旨在探讨政治领袖为阐释意大利参与阿富汗军事行动所采用的主要战略叙事的特征与演变路径。政治人士如何构建阿富汗任务的战略叙事？这些叙事主线在冲突期间如何影响公众舆论？我们该如何解释民众支持率的下滑？为解答上述问题，本文依托民意调查与2001-2011年议会辩论的内容分析法展开研究。