must be preserved over time and prepared in time. From the very beginning of my mandate, in order to safeguard this valuable asset, I saw the necessity of a White Paper for International Security and Defence that could serve as a guide to adapt the Armed Forces to the new requirements, and to foster greater awareness in our country about security and defence being common assets and indispensable conditions for the development of our society. This was also the reason why I decided that the drafting of the White Paper should be open to the contributions of all the parties interested in our defence system and to the public opinion. Many innovations have been introduced over the last fifteen years. As a consequence, the Armed Forces have changed by adopting a professional model that is more agile, fully gender-equal and increasingly integrated at the international level, evolving toward the joint organizational structure provided for in the Defence reform started by former Defence Minister Andreatta. The Government intends to finalize the Defence reform process while removing unnecessary bureaucratic structures and unproductive duplications, and changing all organizational or managerial solutions that do not appropriately justify their cost. On the other hand, it’s worth underscoring that in the last few years the Defence has already done a great deal in terms of expenditure cuts and rationalization. It suffices to note that the Ministry has been the “first contributor” in reducing current expenditures, has already introduced various organizational simplifications and finally, based on Law n° 244/2012, has, of its own initiative, cut its personnel by about 25%, lowering the number of the military from 190,000 to 150,000 and that of civilian employees from 30,000 to 20,000. The transformation process, however, is not over, since our future defence requires the Armed Forces to think and operate as a single instrument, where their individual traditions, specificities and different capabilities become the strongpoint of their unity, rather than a weakness resulting in their separation. In brief, we must move from a “joint vision” to a fully joint “reality”. Thus, we will be able to employ and integrate new technologies and make our decisional processes, so effective and efficient in our out-of -area operations, as effective and efficient across the whole spectrum of our activities and sectors of intervention, from procurement to infrastructures, doctrine, recruitment, logistics and training. -9-