National Security Council (Kingdom of Italy)

[[Category: from 04:21, 23 December 2024]]

The National Security Council (Italian: Consiglio per la Sicurezza Nazionale) is the principal advisory body used by the Duce of Italy for consideration of matters affecting all spheres of security, including military and diplomatic affairs, with senior dedicated security advisors and Government officials and ministers. The function of the Council is to support the Duce on security and foreign policies. The Council also serves as the Duce's principal arm for coordinating these policies among various government agencies.

Mission

The function of the National Security Council, with a global and updated vision, is threefold. The first function is to provide the Government of Italy with plans and options for foreign policy, to adapt the State's actions to the international arena, to the global economic environment and to technological innovations. The second function is to function as an information tool in order to protect Italian national interests abroad and to prevent threats and hostile actions.
The third function, which makes use of the first two, is to assist the Duce in policy-making.

Chairman of the National Security Council

The Chairman of the National Security Council is a senior aide of the Duce of Italy, who serves as the senior counsellor to the Duce on security issues. The Chairman of the National Security Council is appointed by the Duce at his pleasure.
The Chairman of the National Security Council chairs meetings of the National Security Council and meetings of the Strategic Political Committee of the Council (the meetings not attended by the Duce himself). The Chairman of the National Security Council is supported by the National Security Council staff who produce research and briefings for the Chairman of the National Security Council to review and present to the Duce.
The influence and role of the Chairman of the National Security Council may vary from time to time and depends not only on the qualities of the person appointed to the position, but also on the style and management philosophy chosen by the Duce. However, the Chairman of the National Security Council is a staff position.

Organisation

The National Security Council is chaired by the Duce. Its members are the Chief of Government (statutory), the Minister of Foreign Affairs (statutory), the Minister of National Defence (statutory), the Minister of Energy (statutory), the Chairman of the Council (statutory), the Minister of Interior (statutory), the Representative of Italy to the United Nations (non-statutory), and the Minister of the Treasury (non-statutory).
The Chief of General Defence Staff is the statutory military advisor to the Council, and the Director General of the National Security is the statutory intelligence advisor. Other key advisors and officials are also regularly invited to attend meetings. The heads of other public administrations, as well as other senior officials, are invited to attend meetings when deemmed appropriate.

The natural operator and manager of the crisis is the Duce and his Government. The emergence of a crisis situation determines the initiative and alerting the individual administration, responsible for protecting the interests threatened or endangered. The organization of technical and operational support of the political leadership is composed of three major functional centres with specific expertise strictly delimited. The institutional actors defining the defence strategy are diverse, from general political figures down to those with more concrete and technical functions, along the whole political-military hierarchy. The general guidelines are given by the Duce, who is the only one to have a general view of the activities of the various ministries and, most important, is the only one who can guarantee their coherence and coordination.

Strategic Political Committee

The Strategic Political Committee (Comitato Politico Strategico) is the Government-level senior interagency forum of the National Security Council for making of national security policy issues. The Committee is made by the Duce, the Chief of Government, the Chairman of the National Security Council, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Treasury, National Defence and Interior. Participation in the meetings is provided in an advisory capacity only to the Chief of the General Defence Staff and the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
When considering international economic issues, the Strategic Political Committee's regular attendees include the Minister of Economic Activities.

Political-Military Committee for National Security

The Political-Military Committee for National Security (Comitato Politico-Militare per la Sicurezza Nazionale, usually referred to as Comitato Politico-Militare) is the inter-ministerial committee grouping the four technical chiefs of the national security apparatus of the Kingdom of Italy. The Committee consists of the Under-secretary of the Chief of Government (directly subordinate to the Chief of Government), the Director-General of Public Security, the Director-General of the National Security, the Commandant-General of the M.V.S.N. and of the Chief of General Staff. The Director-General for the Fire-fighting Services and Civil Defence may be summoned if the circumstance require it.
The Committee serves as compensation and coordination room in order to avoid any conflicting order, serving as technical arm of the Strategic Political Committee. The Political Military Committee for National Security is a permanent body, also active in normal conditions during sensitive periods, in order to prevent sudden escalations in a timely manner. The Political Military Committee is also responsible for reviewing and monitoring the interagency national security process including for establishing and directing the individual task-forces.
The 4+1 "technical members" are empowered to issue commands and orders also to units and organizations normally outside their own chain of command:

• The Director-General for the Fire-fighting Services and Civil Defence is in charge for all civil defence and protection within the Italian State, and controls the Fire Soldiers Corps, directs the civil defence technical organs at every administrative level and may mobilize both P.S. and M.V.S.N. resources, as well as require military assets (mainly Engineering Corps assets);
• The Director-General of Public Security is in charge for all policing within the Italian State and therefore operationally controls Carabinieri (dependent on the Chief of General Staff), the Central Security Office and police-tasked M.V.S.N. Specialities and may mobilize the territorial M.V.S.N., the G.N.R. and the rest of the military;
• The Director-General of National Security is in charge for permanently coordinating intelligence activities both at home and abroad. He is always the Director-General of the O.V.R.A. (and in this capacity subordinated to the Commandant-General of the M.V.S.N.) and coordinates the Confidential Affairs Division and the Political Police of the Public Security and the Military Information Service;
• The Commandant-General of the M.V.S.N. is in charge with the armed defence (and spreading) of the Fascist Regime (as conceptually distinct from the Italian State) and therefore commands all four branches of the M.V.S.N. (territorial M.V.S.N., Central Security Office, G.N.R. and O.V.R.A.). Although fully subordinated to the Public Security, the Local Police are drawn from M.V.S.N. ranks. Finally, the Commandant-General may require military troops in order to crush serious uprisings;
• The Chief of General Staff is in charge of the military/external defence of the Italian State, as well as of the military operations abroad. He commands the Carabinieri, permanently assigned to Public Security duties, and in case of total war he takes command of all military and armed forces within Italy and Italian Empire, including police forces and all M.V.S.N. branches.

Alongside the Committee in its ordinary composition, which brings together the top figures of each branch, special "working tables", able to address specific needs at a lower level, may be set up. Such working tables are part of the Committee, but they usually function autonomously. The most famous of these working tables within the Political-Military Committee is the Standing conference for the internal military security (Conferenza permanente per la sicurezza interna a carattere militare), which involves the G.N.R., the Carabinieri and the Royal Police Corps, with the optional participation of officers of the other Gendarmerie corps of the Italian Empire; the conference's stated goal is to ensure a close cooperation, also by advancing organizational proposals, although it is an open secret that is one of the bureaucreatic centres pushing for a deep reform in the security sector, aiming to a much deeper integration of the internal security organizations with military character.

National Decision Making Centre

The National Decision Making Centre, is the seat of the support to Strategic Political Committee, in which concrete measures are substantiated in the choices made. The Decision Making Room, the Control Room and the Situation Room are modular elements of the Centre, in close liaison with their counterparts in the individual ministries and the O.V.R.A.

The concerted action radiates from the National Decision Making Centre in respect of the various areas of relevance.