Rethinking political warfare in Italy: a bottom-up approach
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-11-2019-0139 |
| Published date | 24 January 2020 |
| Date | 24 January 2020 |
| Pages | 437-452 |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & Finance,Financial risk/company failure,Financial crime |
| Author | Alessandro Arcobasso |
Rethinking political warfare in
Italy: a bottom-up approach
Alessandro Arcobasso
Department of International Relations, Complutense University of Madrid,
Pozuelo de Alarc
on, Spain
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief answer to the following questions: in the
arena for State and non-State actors, who and how may guarantee the balance between democracy,
State and market? How can the citizens’economic well-being be prioritized, in terms of national
security?
Design/methodology/approach –Adapting both the link analysis approach and the order of Pierce’s
inference stages, the author illustrates the state of the art, some economic indices and Italy’s need for
countermeasures.
Findings –Starting from the notion of “socialsustainability of the political decisions,”given by the author,
the paper highlightsthe opportunity to rethink the concept of political warfare, in view of a productivefabric
characterized by both a high number of small and medium-sizedenterprises and the pervasiveness of mafia-
type organizations. At the end, the author shares some proposal in the fields of Public Law and Social
Marketingand a broader definition of the above-mentioned concept.
Originality/value –This study shows the link betweensecurity studies, people’s perception of grey areas
and polarization of opinions and wealth, giving the reader a bottom-up input to the comprehension of the
contemporarycomplexity.
Keywords SMEs, Polarization, Democracy, Underemployment, Financial markets,
Intelligence, Economic well-being, National security, Mass migration, Political warfare, Grey areas,
Mafia-type organizations
Paper type Conceptual paper
1. Introduction
In any country of the world, political choicesshould aim at increasing prosperity; positively
influencing three factors:stability, attractiveness and competitiveness.
When this happens, such choices can be defined as “socially sustainable,”because the
economic well-being of citizensand firms should increase or, at least, should not decrease. In
contrast, when this does not happen, it might be interesting to understand what has
influenced the decision-making process, by causing a situation of conflict with the public
interest for prosperity.
Moreover, if we consider thatthe perceived reality is sometimes more important than the
reality of facts, apparently there is nothingto prevent a state from equipping itself to avoid
or counterbalance a conflict narrative about the above choices. Above all in an economic
context such as Italy, whose productive fabric is mainly composed of micro-small and
medium-sized enterprisesthat everyday struggle for survival.
Edelhertz (1970)defined white-collar crime as any:
[...] illegal act or series of illegal acts committed by non-physical means and by concealment or
guile, to obtain money or property, to avoid the payment or loss of money or property, or to obtain
business or personal advantages.
Rethinking
PW in Italy
437
Journalof Financial Crime
Vol.30 No. 2, 2023
pp. 437-452
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1359-0790
DOI 10.1108/JFC-11-2019-0139
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1359-0790.htm
Taking inspiration from this definition, it is possible to state that the pervasiveness of
organized crime is not the only element that can compromise the stability, attractiveness
and competitivenessof a country.
Several analysts, for instance, affirm that Italian people live since a while in a context of
cognitive warfare, where states and non-state actors are aimed to confusing decision-
makers, disorienting citizens and compromising their trust in democratic institutions
(Germani, 2017;Gagliano,2012;Rapetto and Di Nunzio, 2001).
Misinformation, political propaganda and manipulation of perceptions are not new but
the combination of technological innovation and functional illiteracy has reduced the costs
of conflicts and made them potentially devastating, even in the absence of a traditional
military campaign.
Therefore, rethinking the conceptof political warfare (PW), approaching it to data about
the economic well-being, couldbe useful for those who are concerned to protect and promote
the integrity of their nationaleconomy, institution or enterprise.
This kind of research, in the so-called Belpaese, is paradoxically facilitated by the topic
which is polarizing the public opinion: the relationship between emigration from Italy and
immigration from Africa.
From this angle, security studies offer a double opportunity: to take the unusual
perspective of the citizen-consumer, proposing some countermeasures that should reflectthe
posture of friendsand allied nations.
2. State of the art
2.1 National security and political warfare
According to a classicaldefinition (Kennan, 1948, p. 1), PW is:
[...] the employment of all the means at a nation’s command, short of war, to achieve its national
objectives. [...] They range from such overt actions as political alliances, economic measures (as
ERP –the Marshall Plan) and “white”propaganda to such covert operations as clandestine
support of “friendly”foreign elements, “black”psychological warfare and even encouragement of
underground resistance in hostile states.
About 40 years later, Smith (1989, p. 3) argued thatthe term “political”is used “to describe
purposeful intercourse between peoples and governments affecting national survival”and
that, even if PW “may be combined with violence, economic pressure, subversion, and
diplomacy, [...] its chief aspect is the use of words, images, and ideas.”In the same period,
Codevilla (1989, p. 77) pointed out that PW is “the marshaling of human support, or
opposition, to achievevictory in a war or in unbloody conflicts as serious as war.”
A few years ago, this notion was actualized by the United States Army Special
Operations Command(2015,p.2):
Political Warfare encompasses a spectrum of activities associated with diplomatic and economic
engagement, Security Sector Assistance (SSA), novel forms of Unconventional Warfare (UW), and
Information and Influence Activities (IIA).
Today, however, the analysts’attention has mostly shifted to the concepts of “grey zone
strategy,”“hybrid threat”or “hybrid warfare”that connote a combination of non-kinetic
tactics with conventional military means (Robinson et al.,2018). Indeed, according to the
multinational team of the MCDC Countering HybridWarfare Project, led by North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO), the targets can be military, political, socio-economic or
multiple as well as the instruments of power to use. This qualifies it as a serious and acute
JFC
30,2
438
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