[5] With that monograph he anticipated the great debate of the following decade over mobilization: a strong proponent of the need for Italy to take an offensive posture, he highlighted the inadequacy of the national recruitment system and the railway network, calling for its strengthening and expansion in view of the concentration of troops in the Po Valley.

[8] As a collaborator of the minister Emilio Ferrero and the general secretary Luigi Pelloux, Ponza di San Martino contributed to the planning and establishment of the new Army system,[9] responding to the need to increase Italy’s "strategic power".

[16][17] In the years from 1889 to 1893 Coriolano Ponza di San Martino contributed to the Rivista Militare, writing articles on strategy, tactics and army culture.

[3] As aide-de-camp to the King he opposed Ricotti's military policy and pushed Giovanni Giolitti (who needed Ponza di San Martino’s support in the constituency of Dronero, where he was very influential)[1][18] to criticize it.

At the General Staff he was a convinced advocate of the need to finish the fortification works on the eastern border, emphasising that although Italy was part of the Triple Alliance, a war with Austria-Hungary could not be ruled out.

As Minister Ponza di San Martino pushed forward with an “offensivist” transformation of Italian military doctrine and with a reform of the Officer Corps.

[4] His program included the modernization of the Royal Army’s artillery, following the offensivist view of the need for strengthening "special weapons", as opposed to the numerical theory which focused on expanding the infantry.

Ponza di San Martino supported the repressive policies of the First Pelloux government and tried first with Giuseppe Saracco (when he tried to get King Vittorio Emanuele III to approve the state of siege after the assassination of Umberto I)[19] and then with Giuseppe Zanardelli (in the case of the militarization of the railways) to bring forward a policy of "manu militari" repression of strikes while guaranteeing neutrality in disputes between workers and employers.

Hostile to the idea of an "armed nation" advocated by the Historical Far Left, he opposed in Parliament the granting of rifles from the arsenals to local shooting clubs, one of the "flagship" measures of the democratic coalition.

[4] During his time in office he strengthened the role and functions of the Chief of Staff of the Army - for example during the negotiations for the renewal of the military terms of the Triple Alliance and for the signing of the related Naval Convention in 1900 [21][22] - starting the process which would come to fruition with the subsequent reforms of 1906 and 1908.

[25] During his ministry an Italian expeditionary force was sent to China in response to the Boxer rebellion,[26] with Ponza di San Martino making both its strategic and tactical decisions.

[32] He was among the senators adhering to the Parliamentary Fascio for National Defence promoted by the nationalist Maffeo Pantaleoni after the battle of Caporetto to overcome the political crisis and continue the war until victory.