ABSTRACT
Fascist Italy’s aggressive irredentism served to distinguish it from alternative reactive nationalisms. Italian irredentism, at the very commencement of the twentieth century, had already assumed the aggressiveness that was to characterize Fascism. Irredentism is generally identified with the political sentiment attached to the restoration of lost lands, portions of national territory presumably languishing under “alien rule.” The threads that made up the fabric of organized Italian Nationalism can be traced back into the nineteenth century, at a time when irredentism already occupied the concerns of many. China’s new nationalism, with its attendant irredentism and its geostrategic plans, is a serious matter. The preconditions for any effective control over the waters bordered by Liu’s first island chain involve the resolution of post-Maoist China’s irredentist claims. Post-Maoist China’s geostrategic plans thus involve the construction of a major blue-water navy, including suitable aircraft carriers together with the support and attack machines that make such carriers effective defensive and offensive weapons.
