The closing ceremony of the 2022/2023 academic year took place this morning at Palazzo Salviati Center for High Defense Studies, the first university-level military institution in Italy.
The ceremony, presided over by the Chief of Defense Staff, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, was attended by civil and military authorities. The president of the Center for High Defense Studies, team admiral Giacinto Ottaviani, opened the ceremony.
An opportunity to trace the results of a highly profitable year characterized by numerous activities in the field of scientific research, higher education and the dissemination of university knowledge in the interest of the Defense department and in favor of managers - civilian and military - who precisely at the CASD they acquired further decision-making tools to act as leaders in increasingly uncertain, articulated and volatile contexts.
Addressing the visitors of theHigher Defense Studies Institute (IASD), of theHigher Institute of Joint Staff (ISSMI) and to all the personnel of the Authority, Admiral Cavo Dragone described the leader "as a 'human computer', precisely because no artificial intelligence has the processing capacity, and perhaps never will have it, of a being, the leader in fact, who sets up the system in a few decisive moments: the ability to distinguish the right choice , almost always the most burdensome, from the wrong one, the instinctive inclination to give priority to the common good, dignity first and the courage to sacrifice oneself for others.
Qualities therefore that are increasingly necessary for the country system to overcome the challenges of a complex world such as the current one. Afterwards, Admiral Cavo Dragone recalled that "As head of the Armed Forces it is my main duty to understand how to find, train and enhance this resource, the military leaders of today and of the future, absolutely decisive figures in the current scenarios and even more in those to come, where with an increased complexity of classical domains, the Electromagnetic and Cyber domain, the Spatial one and all the pervasiveness of the environment overlap.”
With over 1000 visitors from 33 nations on 4 continents, team admiral Giacinto Ottaviani stated that "CASD is an example of leadership training, increasingly open to civil society, which continues to consolidate its position in Italy and abroad as a new university-level reality", thus highlighting the international vocation of the Centre, which is developed through innovative training for both legacy and university courses dedicated to Senior e Junior manager, in which the Soft Skills – or transversal skills – turn out to be the distinctive element.
Areas that are connected with natural symbiosis both in the field of scientific research and in that of education, witnessed by the numerous educational and training activities in collaboration with Italian universities, the European Security Defense College (ESDC), NATO, the Atlantic Council, and the numerous collaborations in place with various homologous military institutes of friendly and allied countries.
At the end of the ceremony, the diplomas were awarded to the course leaders of the IASD and ISSMI sessions present in the Academic Year 2022/2023, i.e. to the brigade general of the Carabinieri Arma Fabio Cairo and to the frigate captain Enrico Tortoriello.
