At SDA Bocconi School of Management, the first academic hub in the European Union dedicated to research and strategic analysis of the interconnections between defense, security, economics, finance, industry, and geopolitics is being launched, with particular attention to the implications for the national system and for the European and international context.

The Strategic Hub for Integrated Education on Leadership & Defense (SHIELD) is conceived as a space for research, analysis, and dialogue in which these dimensions, increasingly intertwined in contemporary scenarios, are addressed in an integrated and multidisciplinary way. The goal is to move beyond sectoral or local readings in order to understand how security and defense dynamics, at least at a European scale, directly affect economic, industrial, and financial choices, and vice versa.

“The research perimeter of SHIELD takes shape starting from the major transformations that are redefining the global order: the emergence of hybrid threats, the growing centrality of economic security, the vulnerability of strategic supply chains, the need to strengthen industrial resilience, and the role of finance, both public and private, as a lever not only of efficiency, but also of protection of critical assets,” says the Director of SHIELD, Carlo Altomonte.

Within this framework, defense, industry, and financial markets are seen as parts of a single ecosystem, in which industrial decisions and investment choices can quickly translate into strategic risks or opportunities for the country and for Europe.

“The launch of SHIELD,” explains the Dean of SDA Bocconi, Stefano Caselli, “strengthens our positioning as a management school capable of observing and managing interrelations among sectors that go beyond business alone. The continental scope of the initiative also reaffirms our European DNA.”

The SHIELD inauguration day, scheduled for Monday, January 19, 2026, under the patronage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, represents the first public presentation of this vision and its integrated approach. The inaugural ceremony and the thematic discussion panels offer an opportunity for qualified dialogue among academia, institutions, defense, and industry, consistent with the center’s ambition: to build a stable place for operational analysis and strategic debate on the major challenges linking security, economy, and development in the new global context.

A first line of reflection concerns hybrid threats and their impact on finance, industry, and value chains. SHIELD analyzes how non-military tools (from economic pressure to technological and logistical vulnerabilities) can affect security, highlighting critical nodes in strategic supply chains in the energy, defense, technology, and components sectors. From this perspective, particular attention is devoted to the role of strategic industry and to the organizational, governance, and investment choices required to operate in a context of growing geopolitical instability, as well as to the most effective public–private partnership models for anticipating and managing systemic risks.

A second central strand focuses on the turning point phase of the global order and its economic and financial implications for Italy. Geopolitical competition, the redefinition of alliances, and rising strategic instability pose new challenges in terms of growth, investment, public finance, and the country’s international positioning. SHIELD concentrates on the analysis of emerging systemic risks, but also on the opportunities that open up in a phase of discontinuity, exploring how to reposition the national system along global value chains and how to strengthen coherence between defense policies, foreign policy, and economic-industrial choices.

In this context, a primary area of research concerns the financing of strategic and infrastructure investments. The center examines the role of innovative financial instruments, public–private partnerships, and coordination at the European level as levers to strengthen national resilience without excessively burdening public finances, transforming global uncertainty into a capacity for anticipation and adaptation.