Italy's deterrence logic for giant capital ships

Why would Italy plan extremely powerful eighteen-inch-gun capital ships if building them might make other powers view Italy as a threat?

Italian planners would see the ships as deterrents: becoming dangerous was meant to discourage attack and overmatch regional rivals, not invite an immediate British war.

Italian planners expected a threatening ship to make enemies less willing to fight. Britain would more likely answer with a superior design than launch a preventive war, while Italy could still gain a useful edge over France, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire.