SECURITY MANAGEMENT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC IN THE CONTEMPORARY SECURITY ENVIRONMENT

The main features of the Western contemporary security discourse for the past two decades have been hybrid threats as threats to national security and an integrated approach as a way of ensuring the national security. Italy is the only G7 state that does not have a national security strategy. Nevertheless, its security policy is harmonized with NATO, the EU and the leading Western states. Italy recognized the danger of hybrid threats and since 2007 it has undertaken a series of reforms which led to vertical and horizontal integration in crucial executive departments in the field of national security. Through these reforms, Italian security architecture adapted to modern security challenges. On the basis of legal acts, it achieved the vertical integration of departments and bodies competent for external and internal security, intelligence and cyber security, while the horizontal integration was achieved through the existence of collective bodies at the strategic, coordinating and operational level. Thus, the object of this research was the Italian security system in the contemporary security environment with a special reference to the place and role of Italian security management. In that sense, this research aims to answer the following questions: Is Italian security policy aligned with NATO and the EU security policies in terms of hybrid threats and integrated approach? Does Italy meet the organizational and functional conditions for the integrated approach?