Prof. Michael J. Dziedzic

Thank you very much for your invitation. I know that we are short of time so I will get to the point immediately and shall try to end in a few minutes, possibly leaving nothing out. I wish to congratulate the Carabinieri for having dealt with one of the most important aspects of the challenges we face, that is the stabilization of society. One of the most suitable tools to face this challenge is to try to find out how this concept can efficiently be achieved in practice. This is very important, of basic importance, I would say. It is a great pleasure for me to participate in this seminar. I wish to speak because the role and the capacity of the MSU are important for a lasting peace and thus I would like to think of something to take advantage of the progress already achieved. If we do not visit the places where life is hardest, speaking from an American perspective, I am not quite sure we know what to do when we are there. We generally arrive too late; we do not do enough e we try to leave the place too soon. This causes gaps, which the MSU tries to bridge. We arrive too late, we do too little and we do not transform into something else the causes of internal conflict, which would end by destroying peace. We leave too early; before the institutions learn to survive. This is why the MSUs and the Carabinieri in particular, succeed in bridging these gaps.

We know that forces such as the MSUs can stabilize chaotic situations and avoid revenges, etc. we experienced this in Sarajevo, in Kosovo and we shall see this in other situations. Now we speak of post-conflict reconstruction, but the conflict is not yet over because the origin of the conflict has not yet been solved, as occurred in Kosovo; even when we face other problems of a humanitarian nature, we have to cope with the same problem. We have to change a regime; there is a power void. This is the very essence of the problem: we have to bring a capacity that can be complementary to the military presence, able to face disturbing elements of a civil nature by means of a tool rapidly deployable, just as the Carabinieri MSU. This has been perfectly proved a week ago when the MSU deployed from Sarajevo in Kosovo and this showed the validity of their capacities. The second problem is that we do not do enough. We have to turn the conflict, the post conflict reconstruction, into something that can allow to face the causes. We also have to understand what sort of war it is. We have to do as the peacekeepers in their peace process. We also have to ask ourselves what sort of peace it is. In Kosovo and elsewhere peace is n o more than the continuation of the war though by other means. And the power void must not be gapped by violence.

We thus find ourselves having to face a conflict of actors, political extremists, paramilitary organizations, the jihad, the war lords, military forces that could have been a threat, a violence and organized crime, the source of income. The economy of these places is either gray or black. It is here that drug and weapon traffickers thrive. This is the kind of income and all this must change. Thus we must first of all understand and then be able to clear these criminals and politicians. When we went to Bosnia, we first had the opportunity to face the various problems; we did not have great capacities, but we managed to see the symptoms and who was causing them: political power. What we did do in Bosnia was to dismantle these structures, find support bases rather than encourage them to remain as, for instance, stopping Karadzic who made plenty of money by smuggling all sorts of things. We had to understand, put the different pieces of the situation together and then dismantle it and transform the causes of the conflict. I would like to speak of the MSU’s contribution to this cohesion; it is capable of managing all these elements; we would otherwise be paralyzed, but 130 we are also capable of eliminating the sources of the threat and focus our intelligence operations to dismantle these elements. Years ago we made a sixitem plan to free ourselves of these parasites. I went to have a look at the situation and saw that the impurity was ending and we had had the opportunity of facing economic and financial problems.

What other organization can do as much? This room is full of capable people that can accomplish a great deal, together with the Guardia di Finanza. This demands an ability to put together military intelligence and criminal intelligence and convert this intelligence in to evidence to be used in court. The last gap is the lack of sustainability. Whatever serious idea we may have, whatever strategy, this must involve exporting stability. I have already mentioned the fact that we have had to transform the nation: but if our main target is that of leaving the place as soon as possible, who will co-operate with us, who will sustain us? If we leave, we will not transform anything. If we do not export stability we shall have to create a standing partnership. This I believe is the challenge. To conceive the MSU has something that has to think of what will happen later. How shall we sustain these institutions? They are young and vulnerable and we are leaving. They will be threatened by terrorism and organized crime, a permanent battle we have to fight. We must create partners, especially in the weak spots, with whom to work on a permanent basis. How can we achieve all this? I want a partner, an organization such as the Carabinieri to continue our job successfully. This as far as the three gaps are concerned. Now I would like to advance a few suggestions. This morning someone mentioned interoperability. We need this interoperability at several levels. Speaking from the Carabinieri’s viewpoint, they need to have interoperability with many colleagues represented in this room and you have to create it with the other organizations that contribute to the MSUs. You already have a good level of interoperability but you have to achieve it with the combat military units, with the civil police and the local police and this needs a great effort. The second issue that worries me is the capacity building. We need more capacities within the international Community.

How can we achieve them? Here is my proposal: we cannot just watch those who are working with that in mind. An international doctrine, which we call a stability doctrine because it is a neutral name in a NATO context, could be, at European level - what you call integrated police. This international Centre should allow all the other organizations to work efficiently, all together, using the same doctrine, the same tactics, the same procedures: this is what interoperability is within the MSU units. What are we doing? The MSUs should be a deposit of doctrine for all those countries; they could satisfy certain aspects and requisites that should be put all together for the benefit of all. This could be done by the Carabinieri in an effort of integration. They could become the ones who develop trainer courses to prepare all the other countries, specify common tools, organize joint exercises at global level, regional activities in other parts of the world, even out of Europe. All the countries here represented are European. We need a more global network and expand our capacities by means of courses and thus we need to have more trainers, guidelines to assess the degree of readiness and the technical assistance for those countries that are ready to supply the units to be deployed. Of course, Italy and the Carabinieri understand and know how to go about all this and have already proven their capacities in multilateral organizations. I would like to have an international team that includes Italy to supply the international capacity it has in training specialized units, for this is what we need in our units. This should be the target. Of course, the Carabinieri should also have the leadership and bring up the countries that give their contribution and wish to join this Force. These are my proposals. Nowadays we are subject to a different international order; we no longer have to face traditional battles, but those we do have to face will destabilize our international community: what we have to guarantee is the collapse of the villain States and this is determined by our forces. The MSU will supply the vital capacities to get away from situations that threaten global peace. Thank you.


(*) - Transcript from an audio recording.
(**) - Professor at the Peace Institute of Washington.