'This is an excellent study of a little-known but important aspect of the Second World War. It has the great merit of being easy to read at the same time as using much unpublished material from the Italian State Archives.' - Denis Mack Smith, Emeritus Fellow, All Souls, Oxford, and Emeritus Fellow, Peterhouse, Cambridge 'This is an excellent introduction to ... Read morea neglected topic. It will clarify for my students some of the mysteries of Italian fascist foreign policy.' - Dr Maria Quine, Queen Mary, University of London 'Provides the clearest, freshest and most compelling interpretation of Italian policy regarding the background and origins of World War II, and...presents a broad new range of integrated diplomatic and military research that grounds its conclusions more effectively than any previous study. It stands as the key work on Italian policy and the origins of the war.' - Stanley G. Payne, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 'As Robert Mallett clearly shows in his well-researched, well-written and important study of Italian foreign policy in the 1930s, Mussolini set out to exploit the instability in Europe occasioned by Hitler's rise to power in order to pursue a series of well-defined expansionist goals.' - Times Literary Supplement Show Less