HESalleo

He was born in Messina (Sicily) in 1936, and entered the Italian Foreign Service in 1960, soon after getting his Laurea (M.A. degree) from the Law School of the University of Rome. He first served in Paris, then in New York as Consul, then in Prague. In 1972 he came back to the States as counselor at the Embassy in Washington D.C. He later served in the Political Department of his Ministry, from where he moved to Bonn as Minister Counselor. In 1979 he was first appointed deputy Director General of the Department for Economic Cooperation and Development Aid of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Rome. In 1985, he was appointed Director General of the same Department. His experience in Economic and Financial Affairs brought him to accept the post of Head of the Italian Permanent Mission to the OECD (the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) in 1986. He then returned to Rome at the head of the Economic Affairs Department. From 1989 to 1993 he served as Ambassador of Italy in Moscow, during the Gorbatchev era and the downfall of the Soviet Union. The top post of Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was his last assignment in Rome, before being appointed to Washington D.C.
Ambassador Salleo has been a visiting professor at the University of Florence and a professor at Rome University. Over the last five years, he has had several opportunities to meet groups of scholars and students as key-note speakers in different parts of the Country.
He is the author of a diplomatic history study on the genesis of the State of Albania (1913), which was published by Sellerio (Palermo) in the year 2000.
While the Ambassador and Mrs. Anne Marie Salleo live in Washington, their son Alberto is a researcher and Ph.D. candidate of Materials Science an Engineering at Livermore (Ca).

The 30-minute speech, “Italy’s Security and Regional Policy,” addressed the Italian government’s vision of promoting peace, democracy and human rights in the ertain post-Cold War world.

Salleo stressed the importance of preventing and containing ethnic conflicts such as the Balkans wars of the past decade. He said it was the obligation of the “free and prosperous ... Atlantic community” to seize this “historic task” to “influence others for the better.”

The old distinction that put foreign affairs and security issues in the pursuit of national interest on one side and policies based on human rights on the other side is now “largely irrelevant,” he said.

“You will remember the contrast of ‘realists’ and ‘idealists,’ of ‘Bismarckians’ and ‘Wilsonians,’ of the advocates of ‘gun ship diplomacy’ versus ‘moral suasion,’” Salleo said. “I submit that this contrast has become obsolete in a world increasingly interdependent.”

“Bismarckians” refers to supporters of the philosophy of Otto von Bismarck, the German chancellor of the 19th century whose network of hard-nosed geopolitical alliances lead ultimately to World War I. “Wilsonian” refers to President Woodrow Wilson and his concept of a League of Nations, the predecessor to the United Nations, with an emphasis on human rights.

Salleo described the twin tenets of Italian foreign policy and national security based on “Euroatlanticism.” This refers to Italy’s role in the European Union and its role in the Atlantic military alliance with the United States.

“Europeanism and Atlanticism have traditionally been and still are the two main pillars of Italy’s foreign policy,” he said. “They have also been the pillars of our conception of security.”

He described Italy as having undergone a “radical transformation” since the end of the Cold War with significant reform in areas such as the electoral system, finance and economics. He also emphasized Italy’s strategic geographic position. Italy, he said, lies at the crossroads of wealthy western Europe, the strife-torn Balkans and the volatile Middle East.

“Napoleon used to say that in order to understand a country’s foreign policy one has to look at its geography,” he said.

Salleo said the definition of security has changed from “hard power” to “soft power.” Hard power refers to political and military power. Soft power refers to the “strong appeal of [a] free and democratic society [and] a prosperous market economy.”

“We cannot afford to sit back while crises and conflicts devastate far away lands, for the contagious disease spreads easily. Our civilized conscience will not tolerate it, anyway,” he said.

The lecture series is designed to increase interest and awareness in Italy’s political, economic, cultural and scientific role in the world, said Joseph Brami, professor of French culture and literature.[...]

UNITED STATES, ITALY BATTLE TERRORISM
Italian Ambassador to Help Launch "A Case Study in the Secret War"

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31, 2002 - Italian ambassador Ferdinando Salleo will help launch a new CSIS initiative on U.S.-Italian cooperation in the war against terrorism at 11 A.M. on Monday, Feb. 4, at CSIS, 1800 K St., N.W., 4th floor board room.

Salleo will discuss the visit of the Italian justice minister, Roberto Castelli, who will be in Washington meeting with administration officials on Monday, and will outline how the United States and Italy are working together. Edward Luttwak, CSIS senior fellow and leading authority on Italian politics and security issues, will host the event, which is the first in a series of CSIS seminars sponsored by Parmalat, on the changing U.S.-Italian bilateral relationship following the parliamentary victory of Silvio Berlusconi (Forza Italia).

Italy has long experience with dealing with domestic terrorist groups and is also one of the European states situated on the frontline for immigration into Europe from North Africa and the Middle East. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the Islamic Cultural Institute in Milan is "the most important base of al Qaeda in Europe - a station from which weapons, men, and money travel the whole world." Italy's Muslim population is more than one million.

"Italy's relationship with the United States is currently undergoing a profound change," said Robin Niblett, CSIS executive vice president and senior fellow in the CSIS Europe Program. "We are delighted to have this opportunity to examine the sources of this change and the ways that the two countries can work together to combat the range of new security threats."

La Stampa, Giovedì 16 Novembre 2000

Salleo nel regno d’Albania
Maria Grazia Bruzzone

ROMA E’ un’idea felice, quella dell’editore Enzo Sellerio, di dar vita a una collana («La memoria illustrata») di storia «da vedere».
Contiene parole e immagini, racconti e fotografie, documenti storici capaci di rivelare situazioni, atmosfere, dettagli con la concreta immediatezza che oggi riconosciamo alla televisione, ma che un tempo era affidata alle foto d’attualità.

Il primo volume, intitolato Albania: un regno per sei mesi (autore Ferdinando Salleo), unisce la narrazione di una vicenda poco nota al grande pubblico (eppure esemplare ancora oggi: il regno d’Albania, durato sei mesi, del principe prussiano Wied, nell’anno terribile in cui scoppia la prima guerra mondiale) a un corpus di immagini che hanno a loro volta una curiosa storia. Trovate trent’anni fa dallo stesso editore a un mercatino delle pulci di Palermo, sono fotografie di attualità, pubblicate talvolta anche sui giornali dell’epoca, che il ministro degli Esteri italiano, il Marchese Antonino di San Giuliano, grande fautore di quell’esperimento che avrebbe dovuto dare vita a un nuovo stato albanese «vitale e progressivo», aveva inviato alla nuora, Marchesa di Capizzi, dal
marzo al giugno del fatale 1914, anno in cui l’Europa delle Potenze si andava disfacendo.

«Una storia che è come un film potenziale, con personaggi che vengono fuori a tutto tondo», spiega Salleo, siciliano di Messina, diplomatico di lungo corso e attuale ambasciatore italiano a Washington, alla presentazione avvenuta ieri a Roma. Salleo è un osservatore privilegiato, che riesce a guardare ai lontani «fatti d’Albania», a metà strada fra l’operetta e la tragedia. La sua prospettiva, alla luce delle ultime vicende balcaniche, restituisce a quei fatti tutta la loro drammatica contemporaneità.

L’impero ottomano si era ormai disfatto. E l’Italia e l’Austria-Ungheria si fronteggiavano con scopi opposti nella regione balcanica, ma volevano essere unite e Durazzo, la capitale del Principe, dallo stesso obiettivo: dar vita a un’Albania non soggetta all’influenza della Potenza rivale. A Roma e a Vienna, però, in contrasto con i disegni della diplomazia dei due Stati, impersonata dallo statista catanese San Giuliano e dal suo omologo austriaco, prevaleva un’atmosfera di diffidenza reciproca e di ostilità. Tale clima di sospetti e di rivalità contribuisce a far precipitare il regno, travolto comunque dalla deflagrazione del conflitto mondiale. Una guerra che nessuno allora riteneva possibile.

What can you tell us about the new Berlusconi government? Is it pro-European, and how long do you think it will last?

The government has a comfortable majority in both houses of parliament, and this will give it greater freedom to implement the program they presented to the voters and on which they were elected. At the same time, this [majority] is likely to give them a sense of security and continuity. As a whole, the gist of the program is to modernize the country and free the forces of economy and social structure in order to maximize the use of our resources, entrepreneurial talent, and research, which will, hopefully, give a boost to the country.

The Italian government is going to be a fully committed European partner, a builder of Europe, as it has been our tradition since the beginning, since the Messina conference, which was convened by the Italian foreign minister who signed the Rome treaties, as well as a committed NATO ally. These two terms are the main reference for Italy's position on foreign policy--Europe and the [NATO] alliance.

If I had to describe in a nutshell my country's foreign policy since the end of the Second World War, I would say that Italy was fully committed to both Europe and the [NATO] alliance, but first of all, to the link between the two, because one alone of the two parts of the equation would not suffice to ensure our prosperity and our security. We have, in this respect, an extraordinary continuity when considering the link between Europe and NATO as more than the sum of its parts.

Consider the [geopolitical] neighborhood we live in, which is not ideal, and you will immediately understand that it's not because we are smarter, but it is a geopolitical need.

The initial agenda that the Bedusconi government has presented to the outside word is entirely in this direction, which means innovation in domestic policy and continuity in our foreign policy.

Prime Minister Berlusconi was quoted saying, "I want to be George Bush's best friend in Europe." Do you think there will be a new special relationship between Italy and the US because of their conservative leaders?

This is not for me to say. These are the subjects that a diplomat is not supposed to address. What I know, and I know it from the prime minister himself, is that he has a special feeling for the United States and for this administration. There's nothing new in having a special relationship between Italy and the United States for the reasons that I have discussed, and this again is part of the continuity. Besides this special political relationship, there is also a special personal relationship. President Bush's visit to Rome was a real success and created great follow-on possibilities.

Why isn't Italy attracting its share of foreign investment, and what are you doing to attract American investors?

It is true there is less investment from the United States coming into Italy than into other European countries, and this is due to a number of factors that may be structural, may be geographical. The structural factors are language, the lack of natural resources. The geographical configuration of Italy causes transportation problems. If my country were shaped like France, Germany, or Spain, we would have economies of immense scale. Since we cannot reshape it, and we cannot move it, there is an old saying in Eastern Europe that government would swap principled foreign policy for a different geographic location.

Another reason is the tax system--the bureaucracy and the tax system. They are two different factors. The tax system--I wish to avoid the subject of competitive taxation, which is currently one of the hot subjects in the European Union, because other countries are sort of at each other's throats--but certainly, we have a heavy tax burden, and there is overregulation. What I would call overregulation is an elliptical expression for bureaucracy, but overregulation is the real reason. This hopefully can be corrected. It will be corrected. Then on the economic side, there is also the widespread role of the small to medium-sized enterprise preventing direct foreign investment, which usually goes to areas with larger businesses.

One of my problems is we don't have bilateral problems, because that is what makes an ambassador busy, trying to solve problems and taking the glory.

When I go to see my counterparts in the different governmental departments or in the White House, we mostly discuss general political or economic problems or things we do together .... We have eight areas of cooperation with the NIH [National Institutes of Health] that range from AIDS to aging, and we do global research together. The NIH has more than 200 Italian researchers. I was recently at Los Alamos and met with a team of Italian physicists who are involved in a very important program on advanced lasers, and my personal status was enhanced when I told them that my son was at Livermore. So there is an incredible level of integration that does not surface.

It is again part of our culture of being quiet, "lest the taxman cometh," which comes from invasions, from not having a special liking for governments in general. We don't have this phenomenon of being ant/government as it exists here [in the US] as a positive movement but caution toward government is part of the DNA of every Italian. You may call it anarchism or libertarianism.

How would you define the European Union to an American audience in one or two sentences?

The difficulty is that everybody here is convinced that we are doing what you did after 1776, but we are doing a totally different thing that goes by trial and error. We are not building a United States of Europe. We are inventing something new, which I hope won't be a camel, which as you know is a horse designed by a committee. We are inventing something new that is going to be integration at the highest possible level without losing our identity. It sounds like an oxymoron, but I still believe it's feasible. When you travel from Italy to France you don't have to show your passport; six months from now you won't have to change your currency. I hope they will have the same [legal] codes and the same judicial system. Little by little, we're going to have the same immigration and asylum laws. If I want to order my shaving cream from Pads, I can do exactly as I do from Milan. This will not entail automatically the same sales tax. You don't have the same sales tax here; you don't have the same income tax either or corporate tax. You go to Wyoming to pay less income tax; you buy a ranch and pay less in taxes. You incorporate in Delaware and cut down on your corporate tax; do your shopping in Maryland and pay less sales tax than in DC. So there are many ways between full homogenization and radical diversity.