Headed by the Commandant, Lieutenant General Chris Whitecross, on 18th March Senior Course 134 and participating faculty initiated the Course’s first Field Study at the NDC.
After a welcome from the Commandant, NDC Director of Management and Senior Italian Officer Brigadier General Francesco Saverio Giuliano introduced the Italian Day.
Deputy Chief of Defence Lieutenant General Luigi Francesco De Leverano underlined the important role that Italy plays in NATO. He stressed the importance of education to the nations and the Alliance. To that end, Italy perceives the NDC as a very important institution and remains a proud host. The speaker referred to the recent White Paper on Defence and the subsequent parliamentary discussions on the security challenges from two very different arcs of instability: South and East. The strategic context is multidimensional, unpredictable and increasingly complex. No one country can deal with all the challenges; therefore NATO remains a relevant and valuable organization, also linking Europe to the two North American member states. Italy remains a solid contributor to NATO missions and acts as a solid supporter of European defence initiatives, including common capacity development and enhanced NATO-EU cooperation. The speaker stressed that Italy attaches great importance to NATO’s partnerships and Stability Projection, because the root causes of instability and crisis must be addressed by a regional, comprehensive understanding.
Counsellor Fabio Rugge of the Directorate General for Political Affairs and Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, briefed SC 134 on “NATO: current adaptation and Italian priorities”. He referred to NATO’s 2010 Strategic Concept and how threats like hybrid, cyber and terrorism have become higher on the agenda, albeit remaining under the Article 5 threshold. NATO’s options must be increased by strengthening deterrence and defence postures while avoiding escalatory effects. Readiness and responsiveness are key features and core to NATO’s 2019 Military Strategy. Also, NATO must address present and prospective capability gaps. Italy assesses the Southern strategic dimension as necessitating a continued and common understanding of all three core tasks and the related challenges and threats. Additionally, the transatlantic dimension provides cohesion and solidarity based on common values. To that end, burden sharing is very important; however, defence spending is not the only indicator of the resolve of member states, including Italy. Finally, the speaker underlined the firm Italian belief that a stronger EU with increased defence capabilities will strengthen the Transatlantic Link and thereby NATO, and also EU as a security provider.
Deputy Head of Plans and Policy Division in the Ministry of Defence, Brigadier General Andrea Argieri briefed on “Elements and strategic perspective of the Italian Defence Poli-cy”. He characterized NATO, the EU and the UN as the three pillars of the multilateral framework that Italy’s security and defence strategies rest on. Subsequently, he outlined the main elements, activities and decision-makers of the National Strategy and the de-fence organization to implement military policy in four main areas: defence capability planning, aligned with the NATO Defence Planning Process and the EU Capability Development Plan; bilateral cooperation policy; multilateral cooperation; and strategic analysis and directions of operations. With regard to the challenges from the South, the speaker re-emphasized the need to project stability in an ample regional comprehensive approach between regional organizations and partners. Despite limited defence budgets, NATO and an increasingly strong EU must build adequate capacities to address crises together, within a ‘single set of forces’ concept.
Deputy Police Commissioner Lieutenant Colonel Arturo Varriale, Central Police Direc-torate for Prevention and Anti-Terrorism, explained the three pillars of the Italian model to counter terrorism: actionable and effective, contemporary legislation based on Italy’s experience in fighting terrorism; multi-agency, compatible information gathering, analysis and sharing; and international cooperation at strategic and operational level. To describe national and international efforts, he used the example of how the international community deals with the threat from international networks of foreign fighters, citing the examples of EUROPOL and INTERPOL. Finally, he looked forward to much better collection and sharing of biometric data to effectively fight terror.
Major General Franco Federici, Head of the Operations Department of the Italian Joint Operations Headquarter (COI), then spoke about “The Italian Armed Forces Operations Commitment”, centred on national defence, defence of the Euro-Atlantic and Euro-Mediterranean spaces, contributions to international peace and security and support to public authorities and disaster relief. The speaker continued by explaining the defence structure and the specific roles and structures of the Joint Operations Headquarters. He informed that Italy provides approximately 5,900 defence personnel for 37 international operations and approximately 7,300 for 3 homeland security operations, in a total of 27 countries. He also stressed the Italian defence forces’ role as a security enabler and multiplier, with Italy among the major contributors in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Kosovo and Somalia.
The day was moderated by Faculty Adviser Nancy Vellone (ITA C).
The NATO Defense College greatly appreciated the comprehensive briefings and the in-depth answers during the question and answer sessions. Indeed, the day underlined Ita-ly’s role as a key member state of NATO and a great and generous host to the NDC.
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