Please note: this event has passed
Chair: Dr Francesco Milan, Lecturer in the Defence Studies Department
Speakers: Colonel Massimo Di Pietro, NSFACOE Director and Colonel Massimo Moncada, Head of NSFACOE’s Concept, Development, and Doctrine Branch.
As NATO continuously develops its security cooperation with key non-NATO countries, Security Force Assistance (SFA) has become an increasingly central activity.
With responsibilities ranging from defence capacity building to disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) tasks, the recognition of SFA as a standalone NATO concept has led to the development and publication of a dedicated doctrine in 2016, as well as to the establishment of a NATO Security Force Assistance Centre of Excellence (NSFACOE) in 2017.
This event will explore the conceptual evolution of the SFA concept and its doctrine, while also examining its practical application in West Africa, focusing on bilateral efforts in Niger.
The event will be chaired by Dr Francesco Milan; the presentation (1400-1500) by Colonel Massimo Di Pietro, (Director, NSFACOE), and Colonel Massimo Moncada (Head, NSFACOE Concept, Development, and Doctrine Branch) will be followed by a Q&A (1500-1530).
Bio
Before taking the helm as NSFACOE Director in April 2020, Colonel Di Pietro was appointed commander of the 6th Bersaglieri Regiment in 2018. Among other things, his career brought him to serve, from September 2015 to May 2016, as Force Protection Task Force Commander in the Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan. In June 2016 he was moved to the Joint Operations HQ, where he served as Section Chief in the Joint Planning Division, dealing with Rules of Engagement, National Operations and Bilateral Missions.
Colonel Massimo Moncada is Head of NSFACOE’s Concept, Development, and Doctrine Branch since August 2018. In the field of SFA, Col. Moncada joined the Operation Inherent Resolve as Future Operations (FUOPS) planner in CJTF-OIR in Kuwait in 2015, for which he was awarded the US Joint Service Commendation Medal for his outstanding performance, and in the Bilateral SFA Mission ITALY-NIGER as Army Advisor in 2018.