reaching military age annually: males: 51,666
females: 49,207 (2002 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $8.866 bilion (FY01)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 8% (FY01)

Transnational Issues Israel

Disputes - international: West Bank and Gaza Strip are Israeli-occupied
with current status subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement
- permanent status to be determined through further negotiation; Golan
Heights is Israeli-occupied (Lebanon claims the Shab'a Farms area of
Golan Heights)

Illicit drugs: increasingly concerned about cocaine and heroin abuse;
drugs arrive in country from Lebanon and increasingly Jordan

This page was last updated on 1 January 2002

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Italy

Introduction

Italy

Background: Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-states
of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under
King Victor EMMANUEL. An era of parliamentary government came to a
close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI established a Fascist
dictatorship. His disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany led to Italy's
defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced the monarchy in
1946 and economic revival followed. Italy was a charter member of NATO
and the European Economic Community (EEC). It has been at the forefront
of European economic and political unification, joining the European
Monetary Union in 1999. Persistent problems include illegal immigration,
the ravages of organized crime, corruption, high unemployment, and the
low incomes and technical standards of southern Italy compared with the
prosperous north.

Geography Italy

Location: Southern Europe, a peninsula extending into the central
Mediterranean Sea, northeast of Tunisia

Geographic coordinates: 42 50 N, 12 50 E

Map references: Europe

Area: total: 301,230 sq km note: includes Sardinia and Sicily water:
7,210 sq km land: 294,020 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly larger than Arizona

Land boundaries: total: 1,932.2 km border countries: Austria 430 km,
France 488 km, Holy See (Vatican City) 3.2 km, San Marino 39 km, Slovenia
232 km, Switzerland 740 km

Coastline: 7,600 km

Maritime claims: continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of
exploitation territorial sea: 12 NM

Climate: predominantly Mediterranean; Alpine in far north; hot, dry
in south

Terrain: mostly rugged and mountai