After the agreement on the Recovery Fund and the EU Budget 2021-2027 announced at dawn by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, it is important that Italy now presents a convincing National Plan which, as Conte himself stated, face "restart Italy with force and change the face of the country".
The control of investments will therefore be fundamental which, in addition to bringing the many expected benefits to our country, will not undermine national security.
In this regard, interesting ideas can be found in the article published on "leurispes.it" by General Pasquale Preziosa, President of the Permanent Observatory on Security who, in collaboration with Prof. Avv. Roberto De Vita and Dott. Giovanni Russo, who in addition to defining the concept of national security, it indicates the risks to be assessed to safeguard the security of our country.
Investments for strategic infrastructures made with foreign funds or supported by institutions or banks from other countries must always be carefully evaluated, through a transversal reading in terms of geopolitics and geodirect.
Risk management for foreign investments used in strategic infrastructures must be anchored to the national security of the country that benefits from these investments.
If risk management does not take into account national security, any disputes could harm the sovereignty of the country.
Richard Ullman and Tuchman Mathews have included not only military threats to national security but also those from criminal organizations as well as global phenomena such as the growth of the world population, the scarcity of resources and environmental degradation.
Edoardo Camilli states that the concept of national security cannot end exclusively in the security of the state and not only in the security of the individual.
The new definition of the concept of national security includes protecting the nation-state from threats that jeopardize its political independence, territorial integrity and socio-political cohesion.
The availability of adequate economic resources is the prerequisite for the consolidation of security policies for the nation.
Threats of a different nature, but equally insidious, are also those attributable to the economic profile such as: public debts out of control, management by foreign institutions of strategic structures as well as sanctions and embargoes.
Among the various new phenomena of globalization, Land Grabbing or land grabbing on a global scale reappeared in the first decade of the XNUMXst century with investments or purchases of large territorial extensions by transnational companies or foreign governments to face food security of their countries.
Land grabbing is not a negative phenomenon in itself when it creates mutual benefits for countries; however, it may present higher risks for the sovereignty of individual nations when investments are made by foreign governments or transnational corporations with state capital, due to political, diplomatic and military pressures resulting from disagreements on compliance with the contract entered into.
In this sense, Chinese infrastructural investments around the world to implement the Belt & Road strategy are numerous and of high cost, especially for African, Southeast Asian and Latin American countries.
And yet, expensive investments for countries still developing or with weak economies present a high risk of insolvency.
The first problems of insolvency for loans given by China emerged in Sri Lanka which in 2002 made the decision to build a large port infrastructure in Hambatota, with a Chinese loan of $ 1,1 billion. In 2010 the port was inaugurated but the investment proved, in the hands of the premises, unproductive to the point that Sri Lanka was unable to meet the interest payments on the debt contracted for the port infrastructure.
The Chinese established the solution to the problem through the foreclosure of the strategic infrastructure for 99 years with the addition of 15.000 hectares of land adjacent to the port. Since 2017, therefore, the port government has been in the hands of the Chinese state which can also use it for military purposes. Sri Lanka, no longer able to pay the interest on the debt contracted, has lost a piece of sovereignty of its territory.
The problem could repeat itself in the same way around the world.
China uses debt diplomacy to extend its influence and according to the US it "bullies" small countries, Port Grabbing has been added to the Land Grabbing today.
The Sri Lankan Parliament, now in the hands of the opposing party to President Rajapaksa who agreed with the Chinese, is investigating funds allegedly given by the Chinese Port Authority for the campaign for the re-election of President Rajapaksa himself.
The perceived corruption index unfortunately photographs Sri LanKa in 93rd place out of 180 countries and corruption is the main tool, the pick, used by all those, including national and transnational organized crime, who want to violate the administrative structures of the States .
The parliamentary investigation into internal corruption will have no influence on the state of affairs of the port of Hambatota now managed as a "Chinese colony in Sri Lanka".
The main world powers will have to allocate adequate human, economic and instrumental resources to protect national security and to be found ready to overcome any obstacle that may arise to upset peaceful social coexistence and threaten the internal and external security of the State and its population.
The task of the national security strategy is to identify threats to the key values of national security, the vulnerabilities of the country-system in responding to these threats by outlining a medium / long-term action plan to deal with threats, reduce vulnerabilities and promoting national interests.
Whatever the strategy adopted, risk management must have its roots in national security.
General Pasquale Preziosa is the President of the Eurispes Security Observatory, Proc. Agg. DNAA Dr. Giovanni Russo and Prof. Avv. Roberto De Vita are the Vice Presidents