Italy and the decision to participate in the Multinational Force in Lebanon.

Italian participation in the Multinational Force in Lebanon (Mnf) marked the first deployment of Italian soldiers outside the UN since the Second World War. The importance of the issue lies not only in the participation in the peacekeeping mission, but also in how and why Italy was invited to take part in it. The purpose of this paper is therefore to analyze the evolution of the events that led Italy to take part in the Mnf within the framework of her natural propensity towards the Mediterranean. Although a literature on Italian participation in the Mnf already exists, Italy's decision-making process can be analyzed in the light of new archival materials now available. Sandro Pertini's files of the Historical Archive of the Presidency of the Italian Republic and those of the Central Archive of the State of Rome, the Archives du ministère des Affaires Étrangères in Paris, the National Archives in London and the Margaret Thatcher Foundation Archive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]