OT keeps working with the same approach: multidisciplinary, cultural and practical. No contradictions but an enthusiastic willing to enhance the competences of the security managers to help them to do their job at the best.
In OT 18 we are proud to introduce you a contribution by Romain Defline on the importance of the feedback after the crisis: what did go right, what went wrong, where we could improve next time,... Often we don’t pay enough attention to the analysis post-crisis and Romain helps us to understand why it represents a crucial factor. He has been asked by I. N. H.E. S. J. (Institut National des Hautes Etudes de la Sécurité et de la Justice, national institute for high studies on security and justice, reporting directly to the prime minister) to provide a 3-hour lecture about this topic to a group of senior official of the French ministry of home affairs before taking new responsibilities. Romain explains us that “the feedback is different from the debrief, which is performed when closing the crisis management cell. The feedback is a cold phase. Then the following words are crucial: trust, carefulness, professionalism, added value and simplicity”.
Often we read or listen that Italy has not been affected by recent terrorist attacks thanks to the experience developed against organized crime and the Red Brigades. Probably it’s right but we have to pay attention to the widespread threat of the insurrectional anarchism against the Banking sector. Pietro Blengino analyzed twelve years of attacks to the bank branches all around the world and found out that we had 131 attacks. It’s a phenomenon that affected (and affects) mainly South Europe and South America, but more than 62% of the attacks have been perpetrated in Italy. We have to face a kind of terrorism only apparently “low level” because we had many cases in which the insurrectional anarchist showed their will to kill or wound people. It’s an alert that we send from our newsletter and we want that Law Enforcement, Banking Sector and Security experts maintain the focus.
Last but not least, the importance of the geopolitical analysis. As Romain Defline underlines it’s our contribution to help security managers to understand better the general scenario.
Federico Severoni participated to the Conference “Balkan perspectives” that took place the last May 17th in Rome, Palazzo Montecitorio. As the recent incident between Serbia and Kosovo evidence the situation of the Balkan area remains critical for ethnical, political and religious reasons and their possible consequences on the terrorist side.
Riccardo Barracchia introduces us to the topic of the difficult relationship between United States and China reviewing the last book of Graham Allison,“Destinated for war. Can America and Cina escape Thucidide’s trap?”. To avoid this risk America and China have to regain the same mindset that they demonstrated with Henry Kissinger and Zhou Enlai in 1972.
Another interesting review of a book related to the Chines economical approach is proposed by a friend of OT who reads for us the last analysis of Antonio Selvatici, “La Cina e la nuova via della seta” (China and the new Silk Road). This study explains us which are the targets of China and how the Chinese government wants to reach them.
Carla Capobianchi read for us “Vergogna ed esclusione. L’Europa di fronte alla sfida dell’emigrazione” (Shame and exclusion. Europe facing the challenge of migration) written by Umberto Curi. Carla starts from a verse of an African song “I have landed on the other bank. The darkness envelops me. No one knows what, in my solitude, I have to endure” to describe the dramatic situation of the migrants.
The real side of immigration in the Western countries is showed from the point of view of the emotion, potentially destructive, of shame. The shame that the migrant feels, the shame of "being there" in a social reality of exclusion, refusal and indifference, the shame of living "a condition considered abnormal, shameful, irregular, punishable ..."
This approach help to understand the deep meaning of the final words of that African song initially quoted appears clear: "Then it is better to die, rather than be ashamed forever".
