From the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 through to the waning months of the Second World War in 1945, Fascist Italy was at war. This monograph challenges existing scholarship by arguing that Fascist Italy played a significant and distinct role in shaping international relations between 1935 and 1945, creating a Fascist decade of war.

Introduction: A Fascist Decade of War? The Impact of the Italian Wars on the International Stage, 1935-1945; Part I: The International Dimension: Policy-making and Diplomacy; 1. An Opportunity Missed: Britain and the Abyssinian Crisis; 2. American Policy Towards Italy during its 'Decade of War'; 3. Repubblica Sociale Italiana and Spain: An Ideological Relationship in the Decade of War; 4. A New Deal for Italy: Rethinking Britain's Punitive Attitude and the Making of the Allied Policy in Occupied Italy, 1944; Part II: A Fascist Warfare? Military Conquest, Transnational Fighting, and the Use of Violence; 5. Blind Faith: Rethinking the Italian Intervention in Spain, 1936; 6. The Conquest of Albania: The Real Beginning of World War II in Italy; 7. The Despicable Fighting Qualities of the Wops: The East African Campaign and the British Commonwealth's Victory over Italy; 8. From Occupiers to Comrades-in-Arms: Italian Fighters in the Ranks of the Greek People's Liberation Army; Part III: Ideology and Propaganda for the Empire at War; 9. Italian Navalism in the Age of Empire (1934-1940): Navy, Geopolitics, Propaganda and Radicalization; 10. Revisiting the 'Colonial Hypothesis': The Policies and Language of the Italian Army in Ethiopia and Yugoslavia; 11. What 'New Order'? Fascist Expansionism and the Jews: The Case of South-Eastern France, 1942-1943; 12. Radio Propaganda during the War: The Mediterranean Scenario in Radio Bari's Broadcasts (1940-1943); Part IV: A Decade of War?; 13. Fascist Italy Chooses Endless War, 1935-1936: Continuity and Break; 14. Changing Perspectives: Italian Studies on Italy in World War II