Global Security: in Search of a New Vision - Center for Strategic ...

Chapter 1
Sharing Responsibility in Afghanistan and Globally
His Excellency Ignazio La Russa 1
Ivery much appre ci ate your invi ta tion to this work shop, where very impor tant and top i cal issues are
being addressed down to the quan tum level. This work shop is a valu able oppor tu nity for those, like
us, who are respon si ble for gov ern ing our coun tries, man ag ing cur rent cri ses, and pre vent ing future
ones.
CHANGES ON THE INTER NA TIONAL SCENE
Let me start by not ing the lim ited effec tive ness of the avail able instru ments and strat e gies to man age
and solve the cri ses that threaten the secu rity of our coun tries and of the inter na tional com mu nity as a
whole. This sense of pow er less ness is often the result of a wrong and exag ger ated inter pre ta tion of real -
ity. What we should actu ally say is that our degree of secu rity has been grow ing over the last 20 years. In
the 1980s, the world was depicted as a place on the verge of cat a strophic con flict, envi sion ing the use of
weap ons of mass destruc tion. The movie indus try seized on this pic ture and por trayed the world in the
after math of nuclear holo caust, as well as the rem nants of human civ i li za tion, in quite a convincing and
dreadful manner.
We all know that that idea of the world was based on a then-spe cific and uncer tain stra te gic bal -
ance—the so-called bal ance of ter ror—that stemmed from two hos tile and heavily armed polit i cal enti -
ties. But the huge arse nals ready to be used were not the only fright en ing fac tor; per haps even more
fright en ing was the fear that war could be trig gered by acci den tal causes and develop in the blink of an
eye.
We have wit nessed many changes since that time. Yes ter day’s strong and deep-rooted rea sons for con -
fron ta tion between the two worlds have faded. Com mu nism has faded as well, together with its aber rant
vision and prac tices that sub dued a large part of the world pop u la tion for more than 70 years. With the
end of the com mu nist era, so came the end of the need to keep at a high level of alert ness all deter rent
means that the West had resorted to since the end of the Sec ond World War. We gained an oppor tu nity to
1
His Excellency Ignazio La Russa is the Minister of Defense of Italy and was the Patron of the 25 th International Workshop.
The translation from Italian to English was made by Mr. Paolo Cappelli.