Sforza, Carlo (1873–1952)

Italian diplomat and statesman. In 1919 he became under-secretary of state, and in 1920 foreign minister under Giovanni Giolitti. He was ambassador to France in 1922. After Mussolini's March on Rome, he resigned and returned to Italy, where he was an active opponent of fascism. By 1928 he was forced into exile, first in Belgium, and later in the USA. He returned to Italy in 1943, and made a dramatic re-entry into European diplomacy at the Paris Conference of 1947, once more becoming Italy's foreign minister. His efforts to restore Italian influence in world politics and to bring Italy into the Western alliance occupied the last years of his life. By the time he resigned, owing to ill-health, in 1951, he had seen his policies brought to a successful fruition.

Sforza was born in Montignoso, near Massa, Italy. He had a distinguished diplomatic career at Constantinople, Peking, Paris, Madrid, and London. Among his publications are Fifty Years of War and Diplomacy in the Balkans (1941), Machiavelli: Latin and Italian (1942), The Real Italians (1942), Totalitarian War and After (1942), Contemporary Italy: Its Intellectual and Moral Origins (1946), and Italy and the Italians (1948).