Mobility and circulation of ideas within the Mediterranean basin: Mediterranean Colloquia in Florence and Italian foreign policy (1958-64)

This contribution aims to propose an interpretation of the Florence Mediterranean Colloquies, promoted by Giorgio La Pira between 1958 and 1964, as an opportunity for the mobility of men and the shaping of ideas around a common political project for peace in the enlarged Mediterranean. Inspired by Muhammad V's trip to Italy in January 1957 and by the outcomes of La Pira's visit to Rabat a few months later, the four Florentine colloquia constituted important moments of political and intellectual confrontation between some of the protagonists on issues that marked the destiny of the entire region at that time: the Algerian conflict, the Arab-Israeli question, and the decolonization of sub-Saharan Africa. Two dynamics gave political concreteness to La Pira's initiatives: the support of the Italian ruling class, in search of a new international role for the country that would make it a bridge between the West and the South; and the contacts that La Pira had with political personalities who were protagonists of that scenario.