ItaFS

The Italian Foreign Policy and Security Laboratory (ItaFS) research unit at the Center for International Strategic Studies at Luiss Guido Carli, dedicates itself to understanding and advancing Italian national interest in a complex global environment. This specialized unit emphasizes strategic foresight by researching on the latest global trends and by providing scenario and political risk analyses for various stakeholders both governmental and non-governmental.

Comprised of a blend of senior and junior researchers, each with diverse institutional affiliations, the ISFD team offers a broad yet in-depth understanding of global politics. Their expertise spans from security issues and the evolving impact of technological advancements on international relations to diplomatic studies and foreign policy analysis. This multidisciplinary approach enables the unit to foresee and interpret the dynamic interplay between current national and international issues and geopolitical shifts, a crucial factor for promoting a better-informed Italy’s foreign policy.

The unit aims to gather information and insights on the impact of the so-called emerging and disruptive technologies, including military drones, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, cloud computing, robotics, and autonomous systems, as well as on trends in military innovation and the defense market. The unit analyses the potential impact of these technologies and trends on the military and security sectors, including their effects at the strategic, operational, and tactical level, as well as their general implications in great power competition.

A focal point of the ItaSecLAB is also its work is hybrid diplomacy, a conceptualization of the diplomatic effort that sees the systematic engagement of various stakeholders besides the governmental bodies in drafting and acting in Foreign Policy. By actively engaging with the government at the national and local levels and with actors from the private the third sector, the unit studies and develops alternative strategies to the government-to-government diplomacy. Besides the analytical part, the Unit regularly organizes events to facilitate the communication and the synergy among these foreign policy actors.