All the Meloni government’s plans on the underwater domain. Speak Brown (Iai)
Given the growing importance of the underwater domain, the role of the Navy will be increasingly strategic. Interview by Mauro Giansante with Alessandro Marrone, head of the IAI Defense Program, taken from the latest issue of the quarterly Start Magazine
Almost a year and a half has passed since the Meloni government took office and one of the clearest trajectories outlined undoubtedly concerns the energy sector. From this point of view, the conservative political character has translated into following up on what has already been outlined by the previous tenants of Palazzo Chigi. In short, if today we increasingly talk about Italy as a European energy hub , this is the result of more than a few days' work.
The first references made by Alessandro Marrone , head of the Defense Program of the IAI (Institute of International Affairs) in the conversation with the quarterly Start Magazine are inevitable: the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (the famous TAP gas pipeline which for years was the subject of Salento uprisings in Melendugno ) which links Baku to Rome and the two gas pipelines that connect the Italian coasts to Africa. “The Russian-Ukrainian war has indeed diverted attention in terms of security and defense towards the east, but at the same time it has shifted energy supplies towards the south,” he notes. “Because it is true that the energy transition is rightly being accelerated, but in the meantime there is a greater push to sign contracts, to explore cooperation opportunities with African and Middle Eastern countries. And this is reflected in an increase in the traffic of energy resources by sea – therefore LNG, rather than oil – and also in a greater investment in the exploration and use of underwater gas fields particularly in the eastern Mediterranean”.
THE MEDITERRANEAN RETURNS TO THE CENTRAL
In short, a new energy political geography. “By now the actors have incorporated the continuing war into their strategies and there will not be a return to business as usual with Russia in the short term, as instead happened in 2008 after the invasion of Georgia and in some ways even after 2014” , predicts Marrone. All for the benefit of greater diversification: both in terms of energy interconnection and transport. The Mediterranean is at the center of this new configuration, also acquiring importance from a security point of view.
The events that occurred between 2023 and 2024, i.e. the Middle Eastern tensions between Hamas and Israel, saw the Yemeni rebels of the Houthis in the Red Sea added among the protagonists, who through bombings affected the communication routes and therefore also the transport of resources energy. Emblematic events as well as sources of new disasters. This is why, according to the IAI analyst, the Italian vision of an enlarged Mediterranean that goes from the Gulf of Guinea in the west to the Gulf of Aden in the east passing through the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, is very sensible. Also as a connection from the Indo-Pacific to the Atlantic.
In concrete terms, the Italian vision defined in recent months by the Meloni government coincides with the Mattei Plan, so named to honor the memory of Eni's founder. And here Marrone highlights a key transition in international relations, from multilateralism to bilateralism. An approach that involves comprehensive, specific and multi-sectoral partnerships: they incorporate the energy, security, cooperation dimensions to manage migratory flows, the cultural and scientific dimensions. This Italian proactivity is especially evident in Africa, from Tunisia to Mozambique, passing through Libya, Algeria and Egypt. Marrone recalls the numerous trips made in recent months by Meloni and various ministers of his executive precisely to establish new lasting relationships.
Of course, "Italy has unfortunately experienced first hand what instability in Libya after the 2011 war meant in its own national interests." Therefore, relying on these countries is not synonymous with blind trust in their internal solidity: "working simultaneously with multiple partners mitigates and allows us to manage the risk that one or more of these partners may undergo a change of regime due to internal problems", points out Marrone.
Not just Africa, not just energy. Alessandro Marrone recalls the relations with Azerbaijan and the Caucasus and Caspian region in general. Furthermore, this Italian activism can act as a driving force for Europe and gives Rome the contours of greater responsibility as a country system.
THE ROLE OF THE NAVY AND THE UNDERWATER ENVIRONMENT
Again from the Italian point of view, this greater protagonism in the Mediterranean inevitably refers to the role of the Navy. “A very important element,” says Marrone, recalling that the geopolitical confrontations of recent years have called many countries into question and often put the dimension of naval dominance at the centre. “And therefore for Italy, which depends on raw materials and energy and exports finished products, the sea as a transport route and maritime resources are fundamental”. Moreover, in a historical phase where direct land interventions by the West have drastically decreased with the withdrawal from Afghanistan. “Because direct ground interventions are more dangerous and costly, both in terms of casualties in one's armed forces and the use of resources. This is why we are increasingly focusing on the air, space, cyber and naval domains, where the influence of a state is projected in a more indirect way."
Italian "naval diplomacy", from a country-system and technological-industrial perspective, is certainly not exempt from this path. Marrone's references are to the training of the Morosini ship in the Indo Pacific and that of the Cavour aircraft carrier in the shipyard as far away as Australia and Japan. Activities that demonstrate the Italian projection towards an increasingly sensitive area. And the role of the Navy in the underwater environment is in this sense increasingly central in terms of ensuring the most effective exploitation of deposits and energy resources in the seabed, control of critical underwater infrastructures and management of underwater drones. “Because you need a military capability to operate in the entire underwater environment. The Navy operates both in near-coastal waters and in international waters."
Finally, to combine the theme of the underwater domain from a technological point of view, Marrone recalls that it is "a gigantic challenge because today we know the surface of the Moon better than that of the underwater areas, due to the ability to have images of celestial bodies which instead we don't have for the seabed. The percentage of exactly mapped seabeds is very small, 2%, while that of known seabeds is 20%. So there remains an enormous world to explore and map, while the extension of the total underwater Internet cables is calculated to be in the order of over a million kilometres, 2 and a half times the Earth-Moon distance."
Underwater drones are the key tools for progressing in the exploration of the underwater dimension, for mapping but also for monitoring via sensors, so that repair actions are as effective as those to protect structures. Everything is held and we still don't have a full understanding of what everything is.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/governo-strategia-dominio-subacqueo/ on Mon, 01 Apr 2024 05:36:44 +0000.