Global Policy Forum

By Tamar Hahn

With five turns on the Security Council under its arm, Italy is seeking to secure an additional two-year term as a representative of the Western European and Other Group of States (WEOG) for the 2001-2002 biennium.

If voters in the October 10 election lean toward granting equal representation to all WEOG countries, the fact that Italy's competitors Ireland and Norway have served fewer terms in the council could hurt Italy's chances. Norway and Ireland have also been busy playing up the fact that they are small countries facing an Italian Goliath. But some UN observers feel that, all other things being equal, the US may prefer a bigger player over a smaller one.

Size issues aside, Italy's case has many solid features. Italy is currently the fifth top contributor to the United Nations' regular budget. It is also the third top contributor of troops to peace-keeping missions, with a total of 8,247 men deployed in the Balkans, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as on UN observer missions to different continents.

Italy has also shown its commitment to the maintenance of international peace and security through a number of political initiatives. For example, Italy: promoted the Adriatic initiative for cooperation between Italy and its Balkan neighbors and played a major role in restoring peace and stability to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania.

Issues related to economic and social development are a high priority for Italy. In this spirit, the Italian Parliament recently adopted a government sponsored bill to cancel the foreign debt of the poorest and most highly indebted developing countries. The new law authorizes the cancellation of official bilateral credits for a total value of approximately $6 billion over a three-year period, thereby exceeding the commitments that Italy already made within the G-7.

One of the primary beneficiaries of this policy is Africa, the main focus of Italy's development cooperation strategy. In 1999 Italy contributed $1.750 million in official development aid, placing it among the top seven countries in terms of total volume (after Japan, the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands).

Poverty eradication was one of the key motifs of the Italian presidency of ECOSOC in 1999. In this perspective, Italy has allocated funding to allow the least advanced countries to participate in the preparations for the Third United Nations Conference on the Poorest Countries in 2001.

On a different front, Italy has actively promoted a greater awareness at the United Nations of the role played by the new information and communication technologies. This is one of the ideas behind the World Television Forum, the annual meeting of international media representatives entering its fifth edition this year. Italy was a founder of this important forum and continues to be one of the top contributors.

With Ireland and Norway having impressive track records of their own the race is going to be a close one. Italy's formidable lobbyer Paolo Fulci left his post as Ambassador to the UN at the end of last year, but some believe that he may have sewn up the necessary two thirds for election before his departure. The former ambassador is credited with the Fulci Formula which works as follows: you get your commitments, discount the ones in writing by 20 percent, the oral ones by 30 percent and still make sure you have more than the necessary two-thirds, or about 120 votes. On October 10 Italy will put that formula to the test, and hope that Fulci was right.