Mr. Gabriele Cascone spent the first part of his career as an officer in the Carabinieri Corps. This included two tours of duty in Bosnia and Herzegovina with IFOR/SFOR in 1996 and 1997. In 1998, he joined the NATO International Staff, where he still works, having served in three divisions (NATO Office of Security, Political Affairs and Emerging Security Challenges). The focus of his twenty-year career at NATO has been mostly on the Western Balkans and the Middle East, and North Africa. Since July 2019, he is the head of the Counterterrorism Section in the Emerging Security Challenges Division. He holds a B.A. in Law from the University of Parma (Italy) and an M.A. in International Relations from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium).