CASD Rome: the Italian centre for strategic studies, defence and international diplomacy
CASD — Centro Alti Studi per la Difesa — is Italy's institution for senior Armed Forces and diplomatic training. Based in the Palazzo Salviati in Rome, it offers master-level courses in strategic studies, international security and geopolitics for Italian and foreign officers, diplomats and officials.
CASD: strategic studies, international security and geopolitics in the heart of Rome for Italian defence leadership
The Centro Alti Studi per la Difesa (CASD) is Italy's institution for advanced training of senior Armed Forces, diplomatic and public administration leadership. It is not a traditional university, but the highest level of strategic and military education in Italy, affiliated with the Ministry of Defence. It offers master-equivalent courses in strategic studies, international security, geopolitics and crisis management for senior Italian Armed Forces officers, MAECI diplomats, government officials and NATO partner foreign officers.
CASD is structured around three main institutes: the Istituto Superiore di Stato Maggiore Interforze (ISSMI) — for senior officers and career diplomats — the Istituto Alti Studi della Difesa (IASD) — for senior civil and military officials — and the Centro Militare di Studi Strategici (CeMiSS) — a research centre on Italian and European military strategy. CASD's home — the Palazzo Salviati, a historic Renaissance palace on the Tiber, near the Vatican — is one of the capital's most prestigious institutional settings.
CASD participants are typically senior-grade officers (lieutenant colonel-colonel and above), diplomats, senior public officials and security professionals. CASD has structural partnerships with the leading NATO military academies — NDC Rome, NATO Defense College — and international strategy universities such as King's College London War Studies and Johns Hopkins SAIS.
Areas of Specialisation
CASD by the numbers
From 1962 to NATO: sixty years of strategic training for Italy's Armed Forces
CASD was founded in 1962 at the height of the Cold War, as Italy's response — a founding member of NATO and the EEC — to the need for a senior military and diplomatic training institution. Palazzo Salviati, CASD's historic home since 1965, is a 16th-century Renaissance palace that conveys the institution's authority and tradition.
Over the decades CASD evolved its offering to meet contemporary international security challenges: from the Cold War to terrorism, from peacekeeping operations to cybersecurity, from European integration to the Indo-Pacific. Courses are updated annually to reflect Italian and allied strategic priorities.
Today CASD is recognised as one of the leading strategic education centres in the Euro-Atlantic area, with structural relations with Rome's NATO Defense College, the Civitavecchia War School and leading allied military academies. Its graduates lead the Italian Armed Forces and hold key positions in NATO and UN missions.
FAQ — Centro Alti Studi per la Difesa – CASD Roma
Strategic studies and defence in Italy: useful resources
CASD is the pinnacle of Italian strategic education, a unique institution that trains Italy's defence and diplomatic leadership. To explore Italian academic institutions and discover everything about living and studying in Italy.
