Following the events of September 11 and their aftermath, international terrorism cannot but be the main subject of this number of Per Aspera ad Veritatem, in consideration of its extraordinary threatening and destabilising potential.
A four-monthly Magazine obviously cannot (and probably should not) aim primarily at keeping up with current affairs. The ongoing flow of facts and events in the information age appears to be a sequel of round-the-clock news to be learned, consumed and overcome within days or even hours, with the same emotional impact of an advertising "spot". What we try to offer our readers is instead a space, an opportunity to stop and reflect about current affairs within a wider perspective, going beyond the simple reporting of the news. This is obviously useful, but it tends to flatten everything out according to a psychological parameter where the new event takes priority, while the inner complexity is inevitably overlooked. Complexity is a crucial concept to us. The outbreak of a "new" problem, or the unforeseen reappearance of an old problem, do not delete other existing significant issues within a working agenda. As a matter of fact, the more we reflect the more we become aware that the threats are intertwined, globalised and hidden behind thousands of legal and illegal covers, and understanding and contrasting them becomes therefore extremely difficult. Keeping this complexity in mind and keeping our scope as wide as possible, we asked our collaborators to reflect on terrorism but seen "together" with the other themes previously included in the intelligence priority agenda. This is the case of the opening interview with Alessandro CORNELI, on globalisation and anti-globalisation, but also of the other interesting contributions by CUNEO, on the protection of the intelligence technological structures, and by SAVINA on the globalised financial system. These issues are still considered the "new frontier" in our national security culture. Specifically centred on terrorism are instead the article by PISANO on counter-information and the second part of the excellent analysis by PIACENTINI on the Gulf Countries and Central Asia (the first part was published in number 20), updated after the September events. Focused on te
rrorism are also some documents published in Part III, illustrating how a preventive and repressive effort translates into a legal framework of effective measures at the international, European and national level. Interesting aspects of Bin Laden's organisation (also from a human point of view) emerge from the New York Court proceedings (abstract in Part III) relating to the 1998 attacks against the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
In keeping with our tradition, we devote special attention to the ceremony for the inauguration of the Academic Year of SISDe's Training School. On December 20th Mario MORI, the newly appointed General Director of SISDe, in the presence of the Minister for the Interior Claudio SCAJOLA, outlined the future trends of the Service's activity. The ceremony, sober as usual, was made more significant by the address by Igor MAN on the terrorist threat posed by radical Islam.
Our readers know that Per Aspera ad Veritatem has already for some time been following the development of a Reform of the Intelligence system in our country. We present in this volume the various proposals submitted to Parliament. In Part I we published an interesting analytical contribution by Guglielmo ROMANO, which effectively focuses on the relations between the intelligence community and Parliament, looking at past experiences and future developments.
In the section devoted to foreign intelligence systems we look this time at a friendly neighbour, member of the European Union, the Republic of Greece. The analysis of the security organisation and of its tasks in a country that is a strategic geopolitical crossroads offers interesting insights.
The section dedicated to bibliographic reviews opens with an interview with Mimmo FRANZINELLI on his volume Delatori, the most recent addition to this outstanding historian's list of studies on the fascist period. Some of his volumes have already been reviewed by our Magazine. It is interesting to read the author's considerations on anonymous reporting, not only as a matter of historical knowledge, but also as a basis for a reflection on the social and psychological aspects.
We recommend also other books, some of them have been published abroad but our readers can get hold of them in our country, others have been reviewed and commented by critics and the media, as for the book by BAGET BOZZO on Islam or the one by Ralph DAHRENDORF on the future of democracy.
In the Historical Curios we present a few pages by Joseph CONRAD, "monument" of the world literature, from one of his masterpieces, a corner stone of all literary and cinema spy stories.