Italy's All-Volunteer Army

This dissertation builds an analytical framework for understanding the key policy issues and tradeoffs for the Italian Army during its transition toward an All-Volunteer Force. The analysis specifically focuses on the management of the enlisted and noncommissioned officer force in order to (1) assist the army in identifying transition paths most likely to lead to a balanced force, taking costs into account, where the "balanced force" objective is related to how personnel are distributed by grade and years of service (YOS); and (2) provide guidance on force management processes such as recruitment, and identify areas for improvement. The author uses a simulation model of army personnel dynamics to identify alternative strategies designed to improve outcomes. Performance is tracked for multiple measures of effectiveness and costs; strategies were then ranked on the basis of their aggregate cost and effectiveness. The performance of a given alternative is ultimately judged on its robustness across a different set of assumptions of how much policymakers would value an outcome measure (or set of measures) over the rest.