When reality surpasses "theory"

(To Andrea Pastore)
28/09/15

In the last decade NATO's strategic approach has undergone a profound evolution, probably connected to the consolidation of a unipolar world view, such strategic changes have had a heavy impact on the operative art and therefore on the ways in which to conduct one or more military campaigns, both for the modification of the reference scenarios, and for the distortion of the actors and domains.

In order not to enter too much into sterile technicalities that could alter the meaning of the discourse, a synthesis perhaps similar to an accept will be used, stating that today especially the "weapons" with which to wage war have profoundly changed. Two examples for all are the demographic bomb that is sweeping Europe and the scandals involving the automotive world in Germany. The first example is certainly not new, over time the Atlantic Alliance has consolidated the need to include in the operational plans a wide range of hypotheses necessary to address the issue of the movement of large masses composed of non-combatants ready to invest as a wave the operations area, we must not forget how the col. Gaddafi used to open and close the tap of illegal immigrants to express his displeasure with Western partners, examples that are certainly distant and perhaps not interconnected, but with a single common denominator: the management of the desperate. As regards the Wolkswagen case, it seems more complex not to fall into conjectures, however even in this circumstance there is the use of an unconventional weapon, the collapse of the credibility of a system, as a means of neutralizing the opponent, military or political as it is.

Common goals and unitary strategies are complex to find in order to unite these two events / tools and their effects, it is nevertheless possible to highlight a fact and that is the weakening of Europe as a union, all this with an attack on the moral unity of the old continent , as well as a feral blow to its economic engine, Germany. All this will certainly not trigger a conflict, yet it sets the premises for what could be possible, but very unlikely future conflicts. At the center of these tensions, the next venture will not even say it, Russia, increasingly involved in Syrian issues and bound by privileged relations with Berlin on various economic issues, not least the rich and non-sanctionable hydrocarbon market.

It is not a theme of this article to which it is useful to broaden the gap between Brussels and Moscow, where instead the centrality of the cognitive and moral domain for the victory of contemporary conflicts is reaffirmed, mind and heart must be conquered or mined, but certainly kept under strict surveillance and to do this the rifle is not enough.