La minaccia NBCR - Istituto Affari Internazionali

Finally, the optimisation of technical-operational capabilities calls for their rationalisation,
which has to involve a mapping of available military, civilian and health assets and
procedures (at the local and national levels), a rethinking of joint plans and exercises and the
tackling of the problem of standardisation which, in Italy, is in many respects still lacking,
even at the civilian level.
On these critical points, the possible lines of intervention for effective and efficient
management of a CBRN emergency can benefit from some benchmarks offered by analysis
of relevant international, military and civilian experiences (Chapter 2.).
Some of the most important lessons learned are the enhancement and/or institutionalisation
of coordination and exchange between military, civilian and health systems. Even for Italy, it
appears appropriate - for reasons that range from consideration for proficiencies already
developed to the optimization of costs (using what is already available and paid for and
avoiding useless duplications) - that the military components play a leading role in the
management of CBRN threats, starting from the planning stage.
Planning has to take into consideration that, while the response may be similar for natural
disasters and intentional events (in extreme instances of biological events, the response could
be the same), the prevention and forensic stages are specific in case of CBRN attacks.
Planning should, moreover, identify decision makers and common procedures that have to be
continuously reassessed.
For Italy, it is clear that sharing military, civilian and health resources in a global strategy
raises some political-constitutional problems that have to be studied.
More generally, it clearly emerges that the most urgent gap, beyond investments and
rationalisation of technical-operational capabilities, is coordination between administrations
(also at the local level) and between these and the Government.
A description of the institutional and normative framework relating to the CBRN threat
(Chapter 3.) highlights a proliferation of laws (Appendix) that does not provide for the clear
and permanent attribution of responsibility to the multiple subjects involved, for example, to
those who head and those who support an operation.
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