Current position:
Antonio Varsori is full professor of History of International Relations at the University of Padua where he is also member of the Academic Senate.
Academic career:
Graduated in Political Sciences at the University of Padua, started his academic career in the second half the 1970s with a fellowship of the Italian National Research Council abroad (University of Reading – UK), in March 1985 he became lecturer in History of International Relations at the University of Florence; in 1992 he became associate professor of History of International Relations and in 2000 full professor of the same discipline at the University of Florence. In 2003 he moved to the University of Padua, where he has been chairman of the first level degree course in Political Sciences, member of the University Research Committee, Director of the Department of International Studies (2009-2011), Director of the Department of Political Science, Law and International Studies (2012-2015), member of the Academic Senate (2012-2015). In 2014 he has been awarded the “laurea honoris causa” in European Studies by the Babes-Bolyai Univesity of Cluj-Napoca (Romania). In 2015 he has been elected for the second time member of the Academic Senate of the University of Padua.
Scholarly activities at national and international level:
He has been twice research fellow at the University of Reading and the University of Southampton and he is currently associate fellow of the Centre “Ideas” of the London School of Economics and Political Science and of the IRICE Centre of the “Université de Paris I Sorbonne”. He has been twice – in 2008 ad in 2011 - “visiting professor” at the University “SciencesPo” (Paris). He is member of the editorial board/scientific committee of the following journals: “Journal of European Integration History”, “Cold War History”, “Eunomia”, “Res Publica”, “Storia e Diplomazia”. In 2015 he has become the editor of the journal “Ventunesimo Secolo”. He is the responsible of the series “Contemporary International History” of the Franco Angeli publishing house (Milan) and with M. Dumoulin and E. Bussière of the series “Euroclio” of the Peter Lang publishing house (Bern). He has been member and chairman of the NATO Science for Peace and Security Advisory Panel on Human and Societal Dynamics. He has been the founder and the first Chairman of the Italian Society for International History (2010-2014), he is currently member of the steering committee of the Society. He is member of the committee for the publication of the Italian Diplomatic Documents at the Italian Foreign Ministry. He is member of the teaching staff of the specialization course for the competition to the diplomatic service of the School of Government of the LUISS “Guido Carli” University (Rome). He has been member of the selection committee for the post of official at the Italian Senate and member of the selection committee for the competition to the diplomatic career at the Italian Foreign Ministry. He is member of the steering/scientific committee of the “Annual Summer School on the Cold War” (LSE, University of Vienna, EUI, University of Rome Tor Vergata, University of Rome 3, University of Bologna). He has been member of the selection committees for various posts at Italian Universities, as well as member of the selection committees for posts of full professor of international history at the “Université de Paris I Sorbonne” and at “SciencesPo” (Paris). He cooperated with the AERES (France) for the evaluation of research projects and of a research unit of the University of Strasbourg. He has been member of the scientific committee for the learned journals of the ANVUR. He has given lectures to various Italian and foreign Universities and research institutes (Paris I Sorbonne, Paris IV Sorbonne, Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle, LSE, King’s College London, Université de Louvain-la-Neuve, CISC Madrid, College of Europe, etc.). He has been invited to give papers to several conferences in Italy and abroad and has organized numerous conferences and workshops at a national and international level. He has been member of various Ph.D. programmes and has been member of various Ph.D. final discussions at foreign universities (SciencesPo Paris, Paris I Sorbonne, Louvain-la-Neuve, Aix-en-Provence, Angers, Montpellier). He has been twice Jean Monnet Professor of the History of the European Integration (University of Florence, University of Padua); he was in charge of the Jean Monnet Centre of the Excellence at the University of Florence and he has been awarded the title of “Success story” of the Jean Monnet Program. Since 1992 he has joined the Liaison Committee of Historians of Contemporary Europe at the European Commission ad in May 2014 he has been elected chairman of the Committee. In 2017 he has been appointed member of the Academic Council of the European Space Agency History Project (ESAHP).
Coordination of research activities and administrative responsibilities:
He has been the director of several research projects: three Projects of National Interest financed by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (average budget of every project: 250,000 euros for a total amount of about 750,000 euros) , three University research projects financed by the University of Padua (average budget of every project: 50,000 euros for a total amount of 100,000 euros), one project co-financed by the European Economic and Social Committee (about 10,000 euros), one project co-financed by the CEDEFOP (about 30,000 euros), one project financed by the Sturzo institute (about 20,000 euros). He has taken part to other various research projects, both at a national and at an international level, as well as to the project for the first volume of the official history of the European Commission; he is currently member of the steering committee of the project HISTCOM3 for the 3rd volume of the history of the European Commission.
As Director of the Department of Politics, Law and International Studies of the University of Padua (January 2012- September 2015) he had the responsibility for the coordination of about 75 teaching staff members (full professors, associate professors, researchers) four undergraduate courses, and five master courses (about 3,500 students); about 30 units of administrative personnel and of four buildings.
Publications:
He has published more than two hundred and fifty articles and essays in Italian, English, French, German and Spanish. He is the author of twelve volumes, several of them with well-known academic Italian publishers (il Mulino, Laterza, Le Monnier, Sansoni, Rubbettino, etc.) and edited more than twenty volumes, some of them in English with well-known international English-speaking publishing houses (Macmillan, Palgrave, I.B. Tauris, Peter Lang).
Volumes:
- Gli Alleati e l’emigrazione democratica antifascista (1940-1943), Florence, Sansoni, 1982.
- Il Patto di Bruxelles (1948): tra integrazione europea e alleanza atlantica, Rome, Bonacci, 1988.
- Roberto S. Lopez: l’impegno politico e civile (1938-1945), Florence, Dipartimento di Storia – Università degli Studi, 1990.
- L’Italia nelle relazioni internazionali dal 1943 al 1992, Rome-Bari, Laterza, 1998.
- Controguerriglia e diplomazia. La Gran Bretagna e il coinvolgimento americano in Vietnam durante l’amministrazione Kennedy (1961-1963), Florence, MANENT, 1999.
- La politica estera italiana negli anni della guerra fredda. Attori e momenti, Padua, Edizioni il Rinoceronte, 2005.
- La Cenerentola d’Europa ? L’Italia e l’integrazione europea dal 1947 a oggi, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2010.
- Democrazie. L’Europa meridionale e la fine delle dittature, with M. Del Pero, V. Gavin and F. Guirao, Florence, Le Monnier, 2010.
- L’Italia e la fine della guerra fredda. La politica estera dei governi Andreotti 1989-1992, Bologna, il Mulino, 2013.
- Storia internazionale dal 1919 a oggi, Bologna, il Mulino, 2015
- Maggio radioso. Come l’Italia entrò in guerra, Bologna, il Mulino, 2015
He is the editor of the following volumes:
- Europe 1945-1990s the End of an Era ?, London, Macmillan, 1995.
- The Seas as Europe’s External Borders and Their Role in Shaping a European Identity, ed. with M. Petricioli, London, Lothian Foundation, 1999.
- Il Comitato Economico e Sociale nella costruzione europea, Venice, Marsilio, 2000.
- The Failure of Peace in Europe 1943-48, ed. with E. Calandri, London, Palgrave, 2002.
- Unire e dividere. Gli Stati fra integrazione e secessione, ed. with A. Loretoni, Florence, AIDA, 2003.
- L’Italia e l’Europa (1947-1979), ed. with P. L. Ballini, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2004.
- La prima legislatura repubblicana. Continuità e discontinuità nell’azione delle istituzioni, with U. De Siervo and S. Guerrieri, Rome, Carocci, 2004.
- Lo spazio sociale europeo, ed. with L. Leonardi, Florence, Florence University Press, 2005.
- Inside the European Community. Actors and Policies in the European Integration 1957-1972, Baden-Baden, Nomos Verlag, 2005.
- Nazione, interdipendenza, integrazione. Le relazioni internazionali dell’Italia (1917-1989), ed. with F. Romero, Rome. Carocci, 2006.
- Le istituzioni repubblicane dal centrismo al centro-sinistra (1953-1968), Rome, Carocci, 2006,
- Sfide del mercato e identità europea. Le politiche di educazione e di formazione professionale nell’Europa comunitaria, Milan. Franco Angeli, 2006.
- Alle origini del presente. L’Europa occidentale nella crisi degli anni Settanta, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2007.
- Lionello Levi Sandri e la politica sociale europea, with L. Mechi, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2008.
- Dollari, petrolio e aiuti allo sviluppo. Il confronto Nord-Sud negli anni ’60-70, with D. Caviglia, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2008.
- L’Italia nell’integrazione europea. Un bilancio storico (1957.2007), ed. with P. Craveri, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2009.
- European Union History: Themes and Debates, ed. with W. Kaiser, Basingstoke, Palgrave/Macmillan, 2010.
- Les trajectoires de l’innovation technologique et la construction européenne. Des voies de structuration durable ?, with C. Bouneau and D. Burigana, Bruxelles/Bern, PIE/Peter Lang, 2010.
- Europe in the International Arena during the 1970s. Entering a Different World, with G. R
- Détente in Cold War Europe. Politics and Diplomacy in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, with E. Calandri and D. Caviglia, London, I. B. Tauris, 2013.
- Dal Sessantotto al crollo del Muro. I movimenti di protesta in Europa a cavallo tra i due blocchi, with V. Lomellini, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2014.
- European Parties and the European Integration Process, 1945-1952, with Lucia Bonfreschi e Giovanni Orsina, Bruxelles/Bern, PIE/Peter Lang, 2015.
- Economic Crisis and New Nationalisms. German Political Economy as Preceived by European Partners, with Monika Poettinger, Bruxelles/Bern, PIE/Peter Lang, 2014.
- I documenti sulla politica estera dell’Italia, nuova serie, vol. I, “Il rilancio dell’Europa” 1955-1957, Roma, Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 2017, in cooperazione con F. Lefebvre
- Italy in the international system from Détente to the End of the Cold War. The Underrated Ally, with B. Zaccaria, London, Palgrave/Macmillan, to be published in 2017.
