The international education program for Italian Army officers

This paper deals with the education and training programs in the Italian Army for young officers with a special focus on internationalisation and on how to increase the exchange of students during their initial and basic cycles of preparation. The goal is to inform other institutions with similar purposes about our work, in order to share ideas and initiatives. Internationalisation presents a lot of benefits for the students as well as for teachers and organizations involved. However, it also comes with some risks and difficulties. Considering that the majority of institutes who want to implement new programs in this field have to face annual budget cutting, concepts like “cooperation”, “network” and “best practice sharing” become keywords for those who are interested in the program. For these reasons, any initiatives, such as IMAF, are extremely welcome for enhancing and hopefully boosting the program within the EU and outside. This paper deals with the education and training programs in the Italian Army for young officers with a special focus on internationalisation and on how to increase the exchange of students during their initial and basic cycles of preparation. The goal is to inform other institutions with similar purposes about our work, in order to share ideas and initiatives. Internationalisation presents a lot of benefits for the students as well as for teachers and organizations involved. However, it also comes with some risks and difficulties. Considering that the majority of institutes who want to implement new programs in this field have to face annual budget cutting, concepts like “cooperation”, “network” and “best practice sharing” become keywords for those who are interested in the program. For these reasons, any initiatives, such as IMAF, are extremely welcome for enhancing and hopefully boosting the program within the EU and outside.