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An examination of why and how Fascist Italy sought to increase its influence in the Middle East, and why Italian efforts ultimately failed. Offering fresh insights into Fascist Italy´s foreign and colonial policies, this book makes an important contribution to the complex history of relations between Europe and the Arab world.

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List of Figures Preface Abbreviations Introduction Continuity and Change - Italy and the Middle East, 1870 - 1934 In the Shadow of Ethiopia, 1935 - June 1936 The Protector of Islam, June 1936 - March 1938 Italy and the Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936-39 A Policy that was Hard to Sell, April 1938 - May 1940 The Optimistic Summer, June - October 1940 Conclusions Archival Sources Bibliography

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"Arielli´s monograph is a useful and valuable contribution to the historiography of the Fascist dictatorship. Nonetheless, it also has a clear appeal to any scholar of contemporary international relations in the Middle East and to the general reader in that it provides important insights into the policy and diplomacy of great powers in the Mediterranean area. Finally, in a scholarly landscape dominated by the studies of Emilio Gentile and Roger Griffin and by their interpretation of fascism only in terms of totalitarianism, the empirical approach of Arielli, so concentrated on Italy´s pragmatic geopolitical interests, brings us back to ground." - Elisabetta Cassina Wolff, University of Olso, Norway

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NIR ARIELLI is a Lecturer in International History at the University of Leeds, UK and has been a Research Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University.

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