Fabrizio Coticchia and Jason Davidson's book, Italian Foreign Policy during Matteo Renzi's Government, provides a new and exciting examination of the role played by domestic politics in forging a country's foreign policy. Through the study of Italian foreign policies during Matteo Renzi's short tenure as prime minister, Coticchia and Davidson bring new insights to the role played by domestic affairs in the international realm during an age characterised by ‘charismatic’ leaders, populism, and souverainism.

The authors examine the evolution of Renzi's approach to foreign affairs by focusing on five high-profile issues during his tenure: Russian intervention in Ukraine, the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, instability in Libya, migration, and the EU financial crisis. Despite the deep differences between each issue, Coticchia and Davidson argue that the Italian responses to these international emergencies were not determined primarily by careful consideration of the dynamics characterising each event; rather, they were mostly designed to reinforce the political image that Renzi had tailored for himself. This image was central in helping him to become the prime minister of Italy despite his limited experience as a politician. The authors stress one aspect of Renzi's political image as being particularly appealing: his self-representation as an outsider, a leader who did not represent the hierarchies inside his party, the Democratic Party (PD), and who openly challenged the ruling elites of his country as well as the conservative central national administration. Encapsulated in the catchy term that defined his tenure, rottamazione (scrapping), Renzi's approach was able to win the trust of many Italian voters and keep at bay the political ambitions of Beppe Grillo and his anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S). Renzi successfully portrayed himself as a dynamic and decisive political figure able to fight against the immobility characterising the Italian political scene. He did this by holding the existing political elites responsible for all Italian woes and by drawing on his youth to accentuate the contrast between himself and other Italian political leaders.

However, as the authors note in their study, while this strategy suited him well domestically, it ultimately proved disastrous when employed on the international stage. Coticchia and Davidson argue in Chapters 2 and 3 that, at the European level, Renzi's ability to shape the EU agenda failed with respect to both migration and austerity policy. His confrontational attitude towards the Euro-bureaucrats and his harsh criticism of German chancellor Angela Merkel and the EU commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, undermined Renzi's attempts to increase Europe's overall attention to the Mediterranean and his efforts to reform EU banking policies. In both cases, however, his antagonism toward the European Union and its institutions worked well domestically, especially among the many voters dissatisfied with Brussels.

In reference to Italy's response to the crises in Ukraine (Chapter 4), Iraq and Syria (Chapter 5), and Libya (Chapter 6), Renzi's personalism and disregard for experts in the field led Italy to adopt the same political line as previous Italian governments. In response to the Ukraine/Russia affair, Renzi's government was unable to find a middle ground that acknowledged Russia's perspective without moving too far away from the positions held by the United States and EU. In the fight against ISIS, Renzi refused to provide military strikes in Iraq and rejected any intervention in Syria, despite the favourable opinion of his ministers of defence and foreign affairs, because he feared losing public support to the M5S, which had adopted a pacifist approach. Finally, in response to the Libyan crisis, Renzi preferred avoiding the use of ‘armed forces – contrary to the (bipartisan) national approach – to enhance Italian prestige and credibility’ in the African country (p. 132) so as not to jeopardise his plans for domestic institutional reforms.

Italian Foreign Policy during Matteo Renzi's Government is a brilliant addition to the study of Italian foreign policy and international relations in general. In its examination of the interconnections between domestic politics and international affairs, Coticchia and Davidson's study not only provides a further analysis of the legacy of Renzi's government; it also provides an invaluable investigation into the implications that ‘charismatic leaders’ may have in current liberal democracies. Simply argued, this is a fundamental book for those interested in understanding the complexities and intricacies of balancing domestic and international politics.