The series of national recriminations for the failure to be assigned the role appears to continue special representative of the Secretary General of NATO to an Italian. In this regard, we had been easy prophets, writing already in the aftermath of the NATO Summit in Washington: We will witness the usual race by politicians to "place" an Italian in the position rather than a Frenchman or a Turk, but will we also be concerned about the skills assigned to the position? I'm afraid not (read article "NATO is 75 years old. Unfortunately he doesn't wear them very well")
Unfortunately, Italian reactions seem to give the impression of a misunderstanding of what the role of international officials should be within a supranational organization. Of course, these can and must also be the eyes and ears of their nation within the organization in which they operate, in this case NATO, but then they must act on the basis of NATO's indications and not those of their own capital.
The writer does not believe that Stoltenberg was a good general secretary of the Alliance and has already denounced how he often exceeded his role, for example by issuing statements on Ukraine that were not shared among the Allies (as also highlighted in this newspaper (read article "Stoltenberg, NATO and Western weapons in Ukraine - Online Defense")
However, this time Stoltenberg probably did not overstep his role. It was, in fact, the appointment, as the assignment itself says, of a "Special Representative of the Secretary General", that is, an official who must be the interpreter of the political indications of the general secretary (I repeat: not those of his country of origin).
The appointment ten weeks before leaving office may have been a disgrace towards Rutte (not the only one it seems), but certainly not towards Italy because It was not written anywhere that this position had to be held by an Italian.
Furthermore, the subsequent slightly over-the-top Italian reaction could lead one to think that they wanted the appointment of a "special representative" who, under NATO cover, actually took orders from Rome. In that case, we wouldn't make a good impression on ourselves.
However, the appointment of the Spaniard Javier Colomina as special representative of the secretary general for the "Southern Neighborhood" can find its logic in the fact that Colomina (at NATO since 2017) is currently the deputy assistant secretary general “Political Affairs and Security Policy” (the division of the International Staff which already deals, among other things, with relations with "non-NATO" countries, including those of the Mediterranean) and is already the special representative of the secretary general for the Caucasus and the 'Central Asia.
Furthermore, the point is not, according to the writer, whether or not a certain position is assigned to an Italian, but rather the Alliance's attention to security issues that are vital for our nation.
Is NATO not paying attention to the Southern flank? It's very true, but not from now. Since the Mediterranean is no longer of interest to the USA, the countries of Southern Europe they were unable or did not really want to bring the Alliance's attention to the problem of instability in North Africa and the Middle East.
Really in 2011 Italy agreed and passively joined a NATO operation in Libya (Unified Protector) clearly contrary to its economic and security interests.
In all these years, NATO has not paid due attention to the growing instability of North Africa and the Middle East (instability also favored by some questionable US initiatives, such as the overthrow of the dictatorial but secular regime of Saddam Hussein and the support provided to the “Arab Spring”). There has been no NATO attention to the instability in Libya nor to the growing Russian and Chinese influence in North Africa. Nor has NATO ever intervened in relation to the Mediterranean policies of one of its member states (Turkey) which constantly and treacherously damaged the interests of other Allies (Greece and Italy). The much-vaunted Strategic Hub for the South, established in 2016, has never really been put in a position to be effective.
More recently, also in relation to the serious Houthi threat in the Red Sea, a threat which seriously affects Italy from an economic point of view1 more than many other allied countries, NATO as such has not intervened and the EU limits itself to conducting a reactive operation of limited effectiveness. In this regard, the writer hoped in unsuspecting times that Italy would join the US-led naval mission "Prosperity Guardian" which is the only one that hits terrorist launch points (read article "The Houthis are cutting off our vital routes: let Uncle Sam take care of it!") otherwise we will continue to supply very expensive supplies for decades.
What has Italy done in all these years to force NATO to look to the South as well as to Russia and China? Perhaps too little, given the results.
Of course, we could and perhaps should have linked our contribution to NATO operations in Afghanistan or Iraq with more energy and, today, our support for defense in the East to a greater "real" NATO commitment in the Middle East and North Africa. But it wasn't done.
On the other hand, hypothesize possible "revenge" today (as some press outlets do) due to a task, however important, not assigned to us It wouldn't make us look good.
Having advertised the position of special representative as Italian, before it was even assigned, certainly it wasn't a happy move. The victims in effective permanent service Italians should take into account that, as a nation, it is necessary to evaluate with foresight and in an overall manner the positions they intend to acquire in supranational forums.
Within NATO, Italy will express the next chairman of the NATO military committee (Admiral Cavo Dragone). Italy also expresses a assistant secretary general, a very important position because the level immediately subordinates to the secretary general, but it is the ASG "Executive Management", i.e. it deals primarily with the management of NATO HQ. Perhaps it could have been more politically useful to aim for a assistant secretary general or even to a deputy assistant secretary general in areas such as “Political Affairs and Security Policies””, “Defence Policies and Planning”, “Intelligence and Security”, “Operations, “Defence Investment”, “Innovation Hybrid and Cyber”, “Public Diplomacy” which are all areas that allow to really have an impact on the politics of the Alliance. But choices are choices, we will have had good reasons. We already have an Italian as special representative of the general secretary for "Women Peace and Security". It's all a question of our priorities in setting the tasks we would like to be assigned to Italians and the related choices.
Perhaps, before we victimize ourselves, activities in which we Italians are very good, we should look at the overall picture and in any case remember that officials of a supranational organization must honestly act in the interests of that organization (and not just for their own country) out of respect for all member countries. Even your own!
1 Bear in mind that before the crisis, the entire maritime trade of goods (including critical electronic components) between Europe and China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the Indian subcontinent passed through the Red Sea, approximately 30% of global volumes. of container shipping, approximately 220 thousand tons of grain per day and, above all, approximately 7 million barrels of crude oil per day (crude oil whose price is already clearly rising). An essential supply for energy-intensive European societies (especially after cutting our supplies from the Russian Federation in response to the Ukrainian crisis). For Italy alone, it is estimated that the value of import-export passing through the Red Sea annually exceeds 150 billion euros and represents approximately four tenths of our maritime trade, or over 80 billion euros per year. For Italy the problem is even more serious than in other European countries. Not only did a good part of our trade use that route, but the Italian port infrastructures, especially in Northern Italy, serve as the arrival and departure point for goods destined for or coming from Northern Europe. Goods passing through Suez and the Red Sea. Furthermore, if the vessel were to divert to the Cape of Good Hope route it would be easier and more economical to envisage the use of the much superior Northern European port capacities (Hamburg and Rotterdam for example) than of the Italian ones, with all due respect to the ports of Genoa and Trieste and related related activities.
Photo: NATO
