The Italian State is one of the oldest in Europe. It has been a key player for thousands of years. Historically, the shape of all-military moves and positions has been heavily reliable on how well Italy was functioning. Now as we see Europe becoming more of a unified continent, we also see the involvement of a once unitary Italy in the key organizations such as NATO, the UN, the EU, and the OECD. These organizations bring together countries as one solid rock of foundation.

Italy has both domestic and political issues that it must deal with in order to become the military force that it needs to be. Internationally the threat of immigration and conflict with the many different cultures surrounding Italy weighs heavily on the minds of leaders here. As issues escalate in Bosnia and kosovo, and has things begin to break down ethnically in Albania and Macedonia, violence has the potential of spreading throughout all of the surrounding neighbors of these hostile states. Territorial issues are also of extreme importance to all European nations. As we see Russia in constant battle with its former states. With these groups practically at war, more and more terrorists groups are emerging from the fire. These groups see no harm in attacks on other countries to make their point; so all must be concerned.

From the domestic point of view, Italy has issue that must be dealt with soon. Funding is a huge problem for the military. In comparison to the rest of NATO Italy is a very poorly funded country. A mere 1.8% of the Gross National Product goes towards the funding of the military services. The acquisition of all of their weapons is of concern too. With most of their weapons coming from privately owned and funded manufacturers; Italy has no stable means of production.

Major Issue Number One

The funding for the military in Italy is unbelievably low as compared with other NATO countries. An aproximation shows a mere 1.8% of the gross national product going toward the military. This along with the lack of political interest causes a suffrage in the military forces. Italy has mandatory number of personal in their military. 325,200 active troops and 484,000 men on reserve (women are not involved in the conscription process) who are ready to engage in military actions. Italy is in the middle of a reconstruction of its armed forces. They are trying to change from a current draft system to a new volunteer system, in the next five years. The Military of Defense is requesting 34.234 trillion Italian lira(16.5 billion dollars), which's up from a 32.845 trillion lira request in 2000. These numbers represent 1.46 percent of the gross national product. This is an increase of 4.2 percent. A military that has an Army, Navy, and an Air Force simply needs more funds than that. Italy just can not compete with others nations with such a low budget. They are unable to afford new technologies in order to keep up with the rest of the world powers. Italy is very dependent on the cooperation of smaller countries in order for them to get a lot of their weapons. Also to sell a lot of their weapons as a part of there export process. The Middle East is its big buyer, but is often times in ruins with Italy's other key players, members of NATO such as the United States of America.

The Italian government says that the amount devoted to the military needs to expand heavily and will to what it takes to make that happen. It needs to be over time though, they say. Through slow but forward steps. This will allow for a compensation of the monies that need to be placed in the military fund. Italy believes that both the Middle East and the US are important to their economy's welfare in military services. They believe that a well-balanced median between the two is of great importance,

I believe that Italy should slowly begin ending its ties with the Middle East, in light of the tragedies of the past few years. Why should we continue to aid these people? This is only going to piss off all of our more important friends. It is not worth the hassle. If we slowly start to cut back on our exports to the Middle East then it will not effect us at all. As far as the monies toward the military services, I believe that a huge reform is necessary. With the number of people in the country a slight tax increase would not be a huge problem. A possible millage could solve a lot. Pass something in the next election that would avert money toward the military. Explain to the people that this is very necessary to the success of our country. If they wish to stay up as one of the major countries in the world and become a low life country then we need to build a strong military. This should fly well with the people. They should understand the importance and then will agree to it with open arms.

Major Issue Number two

"Ethnic fragmentation is of a major concern to Italy. With the tide of Communism stopped, ethnic tensions that have historically existed have once again come to the fore."(Italian Military Security, written by Melissa Allen) The United Europe concept is very honestly in danger. Over 2,000 people have been killed and 300,000 homeless have been pushed into surrounding countries. Italy can not afford this. With such a huge dependence on the European Union and the other organizations, this would be the greatest lose ever for our country. Negotiations between the Yugoslavian leader, Milosevic, and the Kosovar leader, Rugova, were attempted and strongly advocated by the Italian government. Italy strongly supported, and still supports sanctions that would pressure Milosevic into diplomatic sittings. Italy is very strong in their supports of pressures of Milosevic into diplomatic sittings. Italy is also pushing for strong UN intervention into the issue. It has told the UN that they will give their full military capability. This shows their concern of the issue. They have offered 6,725 troops into one sector of Kosovo. There are many other situations in Europe. Chechenya, a former state of Russia is an another concern to Europe. Italy sent a statement announcing the importance that Russia stay on good terms with all of their former states. Maintaining integrity and neutrality of the Russians is of huge importance to the well being of Europe. If no resolution between these countries is met soon then, and even now, we will see a huge increase in immigration. These tie hand in hand. Nobody wants to live in a hostile environment. When things get bad, people get out. Italy can not afford to endure a huge rise in population. They barely have enough money to get what they need, let alone support a bunch of non-Italians. This is a concern for all countries. It needs to be handled with a lot of caution and precision.

The Italian government has taken a great deal of strides in order to prevent this from happening. The have sent many relief aids to neighboring countries in order to help the refugees. They are doing this as a preventative measure to keep them out of their country. They believe that if they help them while they are still in their own country then they will want to stay there.

I would take many of the same actions; however, I would not spend so much money. They have spent over 52 million US dollars in Macedonia alone. Why can't we take some of that money and allocate it towards the expansion of our military. That’s a lot of money that could buy and expand a lot of things in our militant system. I believe that the people would agree with me on this one. People like too seeing their money going towards the best things possible. Yes the prevention of refugees is important, but not nearly as important as the expansion and development of the armed forces.

Major Issue Number Three

Terrorism is a huge concern to all countries. Whether you are the one getting attack or not. If your country is the one responsible for harboring these people then that’s just as bad as getting attacked. The major terrorist attack in 1999 affected Italy a great deal. It was the murder on an adviser to their Labor Ministry, Massimo D'Antona. These attacks are happening all over the world. You are never safe from a terrorist attack. They agreed that they had let down their guard on terrorism, thinking that local terrorism had come to an end. They quickly acted on the situation, trying to identify who was to blame for these acts. The military formed teams that found out who did this. The government is now back to the olds ways of being conscious of local terrorism. They have made efforts to prevent any further acts of violence from occurring. I believe that we should have a separate cabinet in the government to deal with terrorism; a branch that is fully responsible for preventing and punishing terrorism. We should have teams of anti-terrorist people that work together in correlation with the Prime Minister. With his approval on many things they would do there best to keep terrorism out of our beloved country. I believe that my suggestions are very feasible. None of them are too expensive relative to their output. I've thought them through clearly and I feel they are the best routes necessary to improve the quality of the nation.

If Italy is going to get back to the power that it wants, or needs, to be; they are going to switch funding around. They need to think about where their money is going. The military is a very important and is not getting the support that it needs in order to survive as a respectable power. Power is a key to respect and respect is necessary for survival in today's world. We need to strongly reconsider our approach towards our views of importance. If we do not believe that a strong military is needed then we have rethink our approach to strong nation. We cannot keep going on depending on other nations for our military needs. This will only hurt us in the long run; we need to be dependent upon ourselves. But no matter how bad we get; we still fight better than the French--don't forget it!