From ‘Donor' to ‘Friend': Italy's Humanitarian Aid and South Korea’s Middle Power Diplomacy in the Wake of the Korean War

This chapter analyses the interactions between Italy and the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the early Cold War (1950-1957) against the backdrop of Rome’s decision to send humanitarian aid to Seoul. Based on archival documents from the Historical Diplomatic Archives at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Rome, this chapter focuses on Italy’s decision to send humanitarian aid to the ROK in 1950 and the strategic uses of that memory by ROK officials later in the decade. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of the interactions between two lesser powers in the context of the early Cold War period. In this sense, this chapter has demonstrated that, despite several constraints to their diplomatic preferences, Rome and Seoul were instrumental to their respective diplomatic agenda, establishing autonomous spaces for political and diplomatic manoeuvre notwithstanding their patron-the United States-preferences.