ABSTRACT
In attempting to answer questions concerning the nature and structure of the Italian propaganda machine operating in the Middle East, this study has highlighted areas of research that have so far been neglected. Literature on Fascist Italy has paid scant attention to the use of propaganda as an instrument to further the international ambitions of Mussolini's regime, focusing instead on the role of Italian Fascist propaganda in the domestic political area. Meanwhile scholars of imperial history have somewhat overlooked Italian efforts to challenge and undermine the European colonial system where Britain and France held positions of pre-eminence. Although reference has often been made to the anti-British broadcasts of Radio Bari, very little research has been conducted to uncover and analyse the complex structure that co-ordinated Italian broadcasts in Arabic with a wide range of propaganda and subversive activities designed to further Italian interests in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
