Day Two in Rome

This blog is about the GSE Symposium 2026.

06 – 08 oct 2026 | Rome, Italy

Wednesday morning in Rome began with two very different reminders that we are definitely in Italy.

The first was last night’s wine.

After a full opening day, and for some, a little more exploration of Italy’s famous vineyards and hospitality, there were a few faces around breakfast that were particularly grateful for the second reminder:

Italian coffee.

Espressos and cappuccinos were doing some serious work from the moment breakfast opened. The coffee line became an unofficial first networking session of the day, as attendees compared notes from Day One, caught up with familiar faces and prepared for another packed schedule.

For those still fighting jet lag, or perhaps recovering from a particularly enthusiastic appreciation of Italian wine, the rich caffeine was a very welcome start.

Suitably refueled, Day Two got underway.

And if Tuesday was about how we organize and integrate, Wednesday quickly widened the conversation: toward people, partnerships, the Mediterranean security environment, and the resources needed to turn strategy into capability.

Starting With the People Behind the Mission

Dr. Lyla Kohistany, U.S. Navy and Afghanistan war veteran and President and Co-Founder of PROMOTE, opened Wednesday’s formal program.

Her presence also gave us an opportunity to bring something deeply personal into a week dominated by strategy, command structures, technology and capability: the human relationships that sit behind all of it.

Let me introduce you to Noori.

A documentary presented by Honor the Promise that follows Ahmad Khalid Noori, a former Afghan Special Operations soldier who escaped the Taliban and is rebuilding his life in the United States.

The film explores much more than one man’s journey.

It is a story about service, sacrifice, friendship, transition and belonging. It also honors the partnership forged between Afghan and American Special Operations Forces during America’s longest war, and the bonds that did not simply disappear when the war ended. NOORI

That story matters here.

Throughout this Symposium we have talked about partnerships as an operational requirement. NOORI reminds us that those partnerships are also deeply personal.

Behind every multinational headquarters, coalition operation and bilateral relationship are people who trusted one another when it mattered.

That trust can last far beyond a deployment.

For our community, it was a powerful reminder of the “why” behind so much of what happens at Global SOF.

We build networks because relationships matter.

Sometimes for the mission.

Sometimes for a lifetime.

Leadership From Our Host Nation

General Luciano Portolano, Chief of Defence Staff, took the stage for the morning’s first keynote, bringing the perspective of our host nation to a room filled with international military, government and industry leaders.

He was followed by Undersecretary of State Matteo Perego di Cremnago, continuing a strong Italian contribution to the week’s discussion.

Hosting this Symposium in Rome is about more than geography.

Italy sits at the center of a region where European, Mediterranean, North African and Middle Eastern security challenges increasingly overlap.

Migration.

Maritime security.

Energy.

Critical infrastructure.

Information.

State and non-state competition.

Hybrid threats.

They do not arrive neatly separated from one another.

And that made the next conversation particularly relevant.

The Mediterranean Crucible

The panel “The Mediterranean Crucible: Countering Evolving Hybrid Threats” brought the focus firmly onto one of the world’s most strategically complex regions.

Andrea Margelletti, President of the Center for International Studies of Rome, joined Rear Admiral Stefano Frumento, Commanding Officer of the Italian Navy Special Forces and Divers Command, to examine an environment where military, economic, political, informational and technological pressures increasingly intersect.

The Mediterranean is not simply Europe’s southern boundary.

It is a strategic crossroads.

Europe meets Africa.

The Atlantic connects with the Middle East.

Commercial routes overlap with security concerns.

And events in one part of the region can produce consequences far beyond it.

For Special Operations Forces, that complexity matters.

Hybrid competition rarely announces itself neatly.

Influence can sit alongside conventional military pressure. Disinformation can accompany economic coercion. Maritime activity can have political consequences ashore. Technology gives both state and non-state actors new ways to create effects without crossing traditional thresholds.

The challenge is not simply identifying each threat.

It is understanding how they connect.

That idea has appeared repeatedly this week: the advantage does not necessarily belong to whoever owns the most individual capabilities, but to whoever can connect information, people and effects fastest.

Coffee, Conversations and a Very Busy Exhibit Hall

By late morning, the Symposium shifted back into the Exhibit Halls.

And once again, the breaks were anything but breaks.

More espresso appeared.

So did more introductions.

The exhibition floor filled with military leaders, government representatives, international delegations and industry partners continuing conversations from the theater.

That rhythm is becoming one of the defining features of the week.

Listen in the general session.

Step outside.

Find the person who can add another piece to the conversation.

CNECT meetings, bilateral discussions and informal introductions continued alongside the formal program, creating exactly the kind of interaction this event was designed to support.

The official schedule gives us the structure.

The conversations around it are what make the network work.

From Operational Need to Investment

At 1245, the discussion moved to another piece of the capability equation: investment.

Dario Scannapieco, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), took the stage for Public Investment in Italian Defense.

This is an increasingly important part of the wider defense conversation.

Identifying an operational requirement is only the beginning.

Technology has to be developed.

Companies have to scale.

Industrial capacity has to exist.

Capital has to reach the right ideas.

And governments, industry and investors need enough shared understanding to know which capabilities genuinely matter.

That creates an important connection between the operator describing a problem, the company building a potential solution and the institutions capable of helping that solution move forward.

For a Symposium focused on bridging the gap between strategy and the battlefield, that conversation belongs firmly in the room. GSOF Europe itself is built around bringing international SOF stakeholders together to explore those connections and advance capability and partnership. GSOF Europe

One More Roman Evening

There is still more Wednesday to come.

After an afternoon of Symposium sessions, Day Two moves outside at 1630 for tonight’s Networking Reception on the Outdoor Terrace. GSOF Europe

And after two days of serious discussion, we cannot think of many better places to continue the conversation than overlooking Rome.

The theater provides the ideas.

The exhibit floor connects requirements with capabilities.

But often it is these less formal moments that create the relationships that last.

A conversation started over coffee in the morning may continue over a drink tonight.

Someone who was a name on an attendee list yesterday becomes a useful connection today.

A quick introduction turns into a meeting.

A meeting turns into an opportunity to work together.

That is how a network grows.

Day Two: The Network in Motion

There has been a lot packed into Wednesday.

A reminder of the enduring bonds between Afghan and American Special Operators through NOORI.

The perspective of senior Italian defense leadership.

A hard look at the evolving challenges of the Mediterranean.

Discussion about the investment required to move capability from concept toward operational reality.

And throughout it all, hundreds of conversations happening between the formal sessions.

There is a subtle continuation of the idea we brought with us into Rome this week: different perspectives do not have to become identical to move in the same direction.

They have to connect.

Day Two showed that network in motion.

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After the espresso that started Wednesday, perhaps something slightly more Italian will help us bring another fantastic day in Rome to a close.

Tomorrow, we do it all again.