ABSTRACT
Despite the legislative powers at their disposal, members of Parliament are often ill equipped to formulate a realistic and coherent defence policy as many are unduly influenced by ideological arguments or lobbying interests. Major weapons procurement programmes are rarely subject to serious evaluation or debate. For example, the New Defence Model (NDM) presented to the Parliament by the then Minister of Defence Virginio Rognoni in November 1991, has never been debated. In the meantime, rapid political and economic changes forced the Defence Administration to prepare a second, downsized version of the NDM, submitted to the Parliament in July 1992 by Salvo Andö. A further, even more reduced, version was announced at the end of 1993. More recently, in the spring of 1995, the Chief of Staff of the Army openly complained about this lack of political attention to the NDM, and its consequences for military planning.
