"What Does That Mean?”: Multiculturalism in The Military Missions

In the operative theaters where our soldiers are employed there is a pluralities of actors: soldiers belonging to the forces of other countries as part of international contingents; the Military and the local police forces; the civil and religious authorities and the local popula-tions; NGOs; mass - media etc.The idea behind this work is that to be able to manage with dif-ferent cultures is essential, in order to achieve the necessary operative effectiveness but also that this ability needs to be improved in Italy. As part of the Research Project,“Officer and Commander in Asymmetric Warfare Operations” of the European Research Group on Military and Society, 43 commanders have been interviewed with semi-structured interviews carried out with the in-depth interview method, in order to grasp the essence of the interviewee's thinking and therefore, of their experience. The research allowed to verify the initial hypothe-sis: one of the most important problems is really to operate and especially to communicate in a transcultural context.