Fascist Italy and the Middle East, 1933-40

" Arielli' s monograph is a useful and valuable contribution to the historiography of the Fascist dictatorship. Nonetheless, it also has a clear appeal to any scholar of contemporary international relations in the Middle East and to the general reader in that it provides important insights into the policy and diplomacy of great powers in the Mediterranean area. Finally, in a scholarly landscape dominated by the studies of Emilio Gentile and Roger Griffin and by their interpretation of fascism only in terms of totalitarianism, the empirical approach of Arielli, so concentrated on Italy' s pragmatic geopolitical interests, brings us back to ground. " - Elisabetta Cassina Wolff, University of Olso, Norway