The Arctic Awareness Week 

SIOI presents The Arctic Awareness Week: High Level Speakers and the Green Generation meet up to promote international cooperation on Arctic issues and concrete and innovative actions on climate change  

SIOI, Rome 1-4 October 2019 

The Arctic Council Observer States are engaged in the activities of the Arctic Council in several ways with different objectives. One of them is raising awareness among the public and particularly younger generations, as they are the future policy makers, business leaders and global citizens. Youth engagement through conferences, seminars, and workshops is an important aspect of strengthening awareness and accountability of governments, as public opinion can often influence state policies. After Italy’s entrance into the Arctic Council, SIOI has made it a priority to engage in raising awareness within the coming generations concerning sustainable development, protection of the environment and the consequences of climate change in the Arctic region as well as middle latitudes. 

For strengthening relations between Italy, other Observer States and the Arctic States, SIOI organizes, in collaboration with the Royal Norwegian Embassy, the United States Embassy to Italy and the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, the first Arctic Awareness Week that encompasses all aspects of the Arctic region including the environment, sustainable development, economy and inter-state cooperation. 

The Arctic Awareness Week, October 1-4, is composed of two large events. The first, an International Symposium “Arctic Connections: A trust-building Arctic cooperation on Energy, Security and Blue Economy” (October 1), in which Arctic States and Observers will be invited to participate and discuss pressing issues relating to sustainable development through Arctic infrastructure and communication, national interests and energy opportunities. The blue economy also will be part of the Conference, as a “blue thinking” approach that looks at eco-sustainability and renewable resources as an ocean of possibilities for the benefit of social and economic growth. The aim of the Conference, which will be paneled by international experts, is to create synergies between the human population and environmental reactions, with a specific focus on the Arctic region. In addition to scientific cooperation, the Observer States, like Italy, can play a key role in raising awareness beyond the Arctic Circle and drawing attention to the importance Arctic climate change, and how it can affect areas outside of the Arctic. 

Climate change can be faced only through a sustainable development approach that includes practical aspects such as energy, security and blue economy. 

The second, ZeroHackathon on Oceans and Poles (October 2-4), is an event aimed at youth participation. Youth are invited to develop innovative, high-impact ideas and projects to promote international cooperation, raising awareness on the most pressing issues related to Oceans and Poles, strengthening resilience of multi-scale changes, addressing the rapidly changing climate and the consequences of pollution, improving a safe and secure use of marine protected areas and the Arctic and Antarctic resources. 

More on: www.sioi.org 

On September 13, former Italian Foreign Minister (2004-2008), President of the Institute for Eurasian Studies Franco Frattini delivered a lecture at RANEPA on Important aspects of West-East relations: Challenges and prospects. 

The honorable guest was introduced by the Rector of the Presidential Academy, Vladimir Mau. Franco Frattini thanked the students for coming to his lecture. The last time he visited the Academy, he was awarded the RANEPA Doctor Honoris Causa title, the speaker said, adding that he was happy to continue cooperation with the Presidential Academy.

He spoke with the students about the relationship between Russia and the European Union and Russian-Italian relations. He noted that during his tenure as Italian Foreign Minister, relations between the two countries, as well as between Russia and the EU, were at the highest level. Franco Frattini regretted that contacts between Russia and the West are tense now, aggravated by the anti-Russia sanctions. He believes the EU has made a number of mistakes, which eventually led to the crisis. 

Mr. Frattini’s lecture was organized by the Department of International Regional Studies and Regional Management of RANEPA Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service. 

Franco Frattini was awarded the RANEPA Doctor Honoris Causa title by Rector Vladimir Mau in 2018. Also in 2018, he agreed to co-head a new program on International Humanitarian Cooperation (a Russian-Italian program with in-depth study of foreign languages) at the IPACS Department of International Regional Studies and Regional Management.

What unites Russia and EU is (much) more than what divides them 

Lectio Magistralis 

Prof. Franco Frattini

Moscow, 13 September, 2019

RANEPA, The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration

I recall with a certain emotion when, in my quality of Foreign Affairs Minister of Italy, in 2002, I could attend an event that helped to make a step forward in the relations between the West and Russia. I’m referring to the historic handshake between President Putin and President Bush, under the auspices of the Italian Government of those days, which admitted Russia to be part of a NATO-Russia Council, thus breaking a cultural, historical, political and diplomatic wall. 

Much more than seventeen years have gone since that far-away 2002. It seems an entire historical period has gone, and unfortunately, today we see as the reestablishment of relations, of a strategic partnership are both in a complex, difficult, in some ways even frozen phase. I’m referring to the strategy that has resulted in the introduction of sanctions against Russia and, of course, to the Russian answer to Europe. 

If I go back to the origin of this crisis, namely the question of Ukraine, with the violent deposition of President Yanukovich, I think we should say that both sides - Ukraine and Russia - have made mistakes; but in my quality of European, of Italian citizen, coming from one of the founder countries of Europe, I am afraid I must say that big errors have been made by Europe. I also remember – I was then still Minister of Foreign Affairs – when in 2009 we celebrated the start of the so-called Eastern partnership, dedicated to Countries – such as the Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia – Europe had declared the intention of strengthening economic and political relations with; well, a failure of Europe dates back to that time, to the initial period of the Eastern partnership. And it's a mistake that, speaking at that 2009 Summit, I had signalled. 

Let me better explain. There was the temptation, maybe the tendency, and in any case we gave the impression, that Europe had created – through the Eastern partnership – a new fast track to the future adhesion of partners to the European Union and maybe even to NATO membership. After many years of negotiations for enlargement, following the success of the 2004 and subsequent enlargements, we gave the impression of wanting to overcome rules, procedures, policies, everything that we call « the acquis » – which any candidate State must reach – while indicating a new “political” process of accelerated accession. 

Certainly this accelerated accession neither would nor should have ever been referred to as perspective. This primarily because there are procedures that all countries must respect. And secondly because, doing so, we gave the impression – and it's an impression that surely did not correspond to the wishes of countries like Italy or France and Spain, which shared on this our same position – that this Eastern partnership was born and developed against Russia: not to cooperate but to counter. It appeared as a new containment policy that, extending to the future of NATO enlargement, certainly gave the impression the Europeans were not acting friendly toward Russia. A few years later, at the time of the negotiations for the signing of the agreement on cooperation and partnership between Ukraine and the European Union, once again that agreement was presented as an alternative arrangement in any Ukraine's ability to continue to work on the East with its main strategic partner, Russia. In other words, it gave the impression that for some EU countries (but not for the others) the real political choice was that Ukraine was faced with an alternative: either you choose the signature with Europe, or you choose the alliance with Russia. 

This alternative was wrong. I believe it is one of the causes of the crisis that followed, but today we have to analyse it calmly. Then, and it’s recent history, we saw the annexation of Crimea, the clashes in the Eastern provinces of Ukraine, and -as I said- errors by all the parties involved, up to the Minsk accords, which today constitute at the same time an objective and a start, because they establish the basis for commitments that must be fully respected on both sides. 

I hope that President Zelensky is changing the Ukraine attitude to engage with Russia, maybe within the “Normandy format” to the full implementation of Minsk Agreement. The announced exchange of prisoners would be a much welcome first step. Italy's position is known, and has been reiterated at the highest levels of the Italian Government. Italy accepted the sanctions policy against Russia for a duty of loyalty, in order to avoid splitting the unity of the European Union, and not because it was (or is) convinced that the way forward is that of economic sanctions, which, among other things, will damage some countries - first of all Italy -, much more than other EU countries. 

Unfortunately, after some years, the Italian successive governments were not strong enough to pretend, at the moment of renewing the sanctions, a deep and substantial political debate, instead of confirming every 6 months. Italy believes that a policy of re-engagement of Russia as a strategic partner is not only necessary, not only urgent, but even indispensable for some major themes of global geopolitics. 

And I'll explain. Our world is going through global and globalized crisis that certainly we cannot solve if the Russian Federation (and incidentally China) are not fully involved along with the West. Russia has certainly a key role in the Syrian issue, because its strategic role and military presence and the strong results achieved against Daesh are well known; where, unfortunately, we must admit, with the policy of the international community we are leaving Syria in the drama, terror, despair of millions and millions of refugees. 

Let’s look to North Africa, to Egypt, where Russia has been able to consolidate a strong presence, providing also with assistance and training to the Egyptian institutions, precisely at a time when some Western countries (but, I want to emphasize, this does not apply to Italy, which increased its relationships) had begun to abandon the current Egyptian Government, with the consequence of a greater fragility in that country. I think no one can deny how much more decisive a strong commitment of Russia in the UN Security Council would be, resulting in a more coordinated framework of solution for Libya, a country battered, divided, where the West thought they can do alone, while the Arab world is in its turn divided inside. The necessary consequence of all this is that, even today, the Security Council is unable to find a way to a resolution that will promote political unity, support, but also launch a serious offensive against terrorism and trafficking of human beings. 

More generally, I see the need for a revival of our engagement with Russia; it is necessary to recreate a strategic partnership in order to counter the challenge to global security and to fight against terrorism, which means cyberterrorism, the so-called cyber-crime; which means economic terrorism, with the huge amount of funding that terrorism still succeeds in collecting through illegal trafficking; and, finally, pure and simple criminal terrorism, Daesh's terrorism, which every day threatens to hit the heart of Europe, and in some case has already affected the European countries, and where – for reasons of convergence of interests – the Russian Federation has exactly our same interest in fighting terrorism before it reaches our homes. I know that the Minsk accords must be implemented; I know that the administrative decentralization of certain regions of Eastern Ukraine must be completed and strengthened to a structure whose virtuous example we Italians have in South Tyrol : the example of a really strong and advanced autonomy. 

I know that there are still investigations and doubts about many victims on each side. All of that is well known. I am equally well aware, in my experience, of the institutional concerns of the Baltic countries, countries that suffered during the Soviet period, countries which aim more to a defence and to a containment rather than to a re-engagement of Russia. I understand these feelings. But I believe that feelings of this kind may be partially mitigated, compensated, looking at an even stronger interest: the global interest, the interest to deal with problems that are common to all of us. That interest, not the divisions, should prevail. I believe this is the meaning of leadership that we expect, that my country expects, that – I think – many Europeans expect from the European Union, its institutions, the Governments of the European countries and also by the Government of the Russian Federation. I see an even worse scenario, if really Trump’s administration will deepen the impact of the U.S. withdrawal from international treaties on non proliferation and arms reduction. I hope that president Trump will be able to react to those, in many American élites and circles, who are pushing him to another cold war era, including nuclear tests and deployment of missiles, that would be exactly the opposite of what the world of today needs. 

It’s time for EU to first gradually review the sanctions-based policy vis-à-vis Russia. Maybe, making a first concrete step by re-opening channels and projects funding from the EBRD to the Russian small and medium enterprises, and so establishing a virtuous circle in view of lifting useless and – for EU and ITA – counterproductive sanctions. I think we should encourage President Trump’s proposal to invite back Russia to join G7, working again as G8 beginning with next year’s U.S. Presidency of G7. France was in favour during last month’s Biarritz G7, and Italy as well. Unfortunately, UK and Germany, because of their current political weakness, were unable to support that move. I hope that U.S. will insist. 

The newly appointed Italian government would be surely in favour. I believe that, rather than repeating mutual accusations, rather than risking falling back into a terrible logic of a new Cold War, it would be good to put on the table, as I tried to do quickly, subjects on which there is a converging interest: our interest as Europeans, Russian friends’ interest, and the entire Western world’s interest, because America and Europe share a goal of global security which cannot be conflicting with the objectives of security which the Russian Federation pursues against drug trafficking or arms trafficking or in contrast to nuclear proliferation. Russia as part of global solution: this should be a key, provided that in the West there are leaders strong enough to elaborate on that principle. These are truly global objectives, because they are goals corresponding to the rules, the founding principles of the United Nations themselves. 

I think today everyone must rethink the logic of confrontation and revive the logic of collaboration, being obviously ready to report when one or the other should let down a transparent sincere and loyal collaboration. 

Thank you very much.

The Italian Society for International Organization (SIOI – UNA Italy) together with the Students’ Movement for International Organization (MSOI/UNYA-Italy), in partnership with the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, the United States Embassy to Italy and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Rome will launch #ZeroHackathon on Oceans and Poles.

ZERO is where we start from in building up this innovative contest that brings ideas and creative solutions to challenging problems taking into considerations the proposal of the new generation. 

This year the SIOI’s youth competition of ideas will focus on the role of sustainable development to address the consequences of climate change in the Arctic, Antarctic and Oceans. We will challenge more than 200 highly motivated young students from high schools and universities all around the world. 

They will gather in Rome from 2 to 4 October 2019, to take part in the third edition of the international youth competition where creativity, civic engagement and teamwork are key elements to success. Participants are invited to develop innovative, high-impact ideas and projects to promote international cooperation, rising awareness on the most pressing issues related to Oceans and Poles, strengthening resilience of multi-scale changes, addressing the rapidly changing climate and the consequences of pollution, improving a safe and secure use of marine protected areas and the Arctic and Antarctic resources. Those involved will work in teams and submit their final proposal via a video and/or a ppt presentation at the pitch session that will take place during the closing Ceremony. 

Proposals will be assessed by a multidisciplinary jury and judged based on their practicality, social impact and innovation. Prestigious institutional representatives, professionals and teachers will also participate in the event and make their knowledge and methods available in order to support teams in the development of their solutions.  The best proposals will be awarded! 

#ZeroHackathon: Oceans and Polar Connections will serve as a central venue in creating a connection between learning and doing, enabling young people to collaborate creatively, promoting the importance of cooperation and teamwork in order to tackle the most pressing global challenges.


More info: wwww.sioi.org and www.romunsioi.org 

Enjoy and Share the Official Video

WFUNA EUROPEAN UNITED NATIONS ASSOCIATIONS MEETING: The new challenges to multilateralism 

Opening Ceremony- SIOI, 20th May, 2019 

Speech delivered by President Franco Frattini 

High Excellencies, 

Young delegates, 

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, 

I am particularly glad to welcome you today at SIOI-UNA Italy to this important and unique event which we have been honoured to organize in cooperation with the World Federation of United Nations Association. 

 I thus wish to address my heart-felt thanks to Bonian Golmohammadi, WFUNA Secretary-General, for being here today. I would like to give a warm welcome to our special guests and Keynote speakers:  Marcela Villareal, Director, Partnerships Division FAO; Luis Jiménez Mcinnis on behalf of IFAD; Staffan De Mistura, Former Under-Secretary-General, UN Special Envoy for Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon; Bettina Tucci Bartsiotas, UNICRI Director. 

The Italian Society for International Organization (SIOI) is an international non-profit organization that has been cooperating since 1944 with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. SIOI UNA Italy has its main office here in the centre of Rome, in Palazzetto Venezia, and has spread over national territory through all of its branches (Milan, Turin, Naples), the Office to support the United Nations in Assisi, and groups of the Students’ Movement for International Organization (MSOI). 

SIOI was founded in Rome on 4th October 1944, when Italy was still divided by war, on the initiative of a group of eminent personalities belonging to the cultural and political life. We are an historical Italian internationalist organization that since the post-war period has been working to carry on the most important negotiations of Italy's accession to the major international organizations. The then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alcide De Gasperi, in the Second Bonomi Government, in December 1944, saw the contribution that an institution such as SIOI could have secured to the Italian Government on its return to the international scene in the difficult years of the post-war transition. Convinced that the Italy would have received its full international legitimacy with the admission to the United Nations, he wanted to submit the nomination of SIOI to the World Federation of United Nations Associations. 

 In 1946, SIOI entered WFUNA, becoming the United Nations’ focal point in Italy considering that Italy was not yet a U.N. member state; indeed only in 1955 Italy’s long wait to join the United Nations Organization finally came to an end. The international action of SIOI-UNA Italy also corresponds to the intense government’s activity on the international front. Foreign policy becomes a priority for Italy: many of actions and strategies were born here at Palazzetto Venezia. These are the years in which our country finds a leading role on the international chess, and SIOI UNA Italy becomes a direct witness of the meetings (closed and public) that will lead to the birth of historic alliances, agreements and decisions. 

“The ceremony celebrating Italy's entry into the UN took place at Palazzo Barberini in Rome on 31 January 1956, at the presence of the President of the Republic Luigi Einaudi and of the highest authorities. The then President of SIOI Niccolò Carandini had the privilege to open the historical ceremony at which intervened the then Minister for Foreign Affairs Gaetano Martino, the SIOI Secretary General Roberto Ago, the special representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Georges Palthey and the Prime Minister, Antonio Segni. 

Minister Martino will say in his speech: “I believe I must be the interpreter of the feelings of all those who participate in this solemn meeting by expressing the greatest satisfaction to the leaders of the Italian Society for the International Organization for having conceived and proposed the act we are carrying out at this time in order to make the meaning of Italy's admission to the United Nations more evident and operative in the conscience of Italians (…)" "The Italian Society for the International Organization concludes tonight, with this act, a period and a cycle of its activity during which it acted for the creation in Italy of a strong current of public opinion in favour of the United Nations. This task was pointed out to SIOI since March 1946 by Alcide De Gasperi. The courageous and clairvoyant statesman considered that Italy's non-membership of the United Nations was not a less reason but one more reason to wish that the aims of the Organization were made known to the Italians and the notion of them could become an essential element of their political conscience. " 

That’s why our institutional aims are the diplomatic and international training, research and information on topics in international organizations, international relations, international cooperation, and international protection of human rights. SIOI School of Higher Education in International Affairs is devoted to post graduate students, civil servants, public administration officials, foreign embassies’ officers, private employees, and so on. 

Our historical course is the Master’s course in Diplomatic Studies. Since 1946 we have been preparing young for the diplomatic competition and I can proudly say that more than half of Italian diplomats were trained in our School. SIOI is also an active member of the forum ‘International Union of Diplomatic Academies’ (IFDT) in Vienna. Moving from tradition to the present time, SIOI is being working thanks to the strong connection to the United Nations and to our Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We are particularly proud of the active cooperation and synergies with WFUNA and with the International Organization represented today by our guests. As an example, you will remember that the first edition of WFUNA International Model United Nations - WIMUN was jointly organized here in Rome in 2014.

I would like to share with you some of our special initiatives 2019 connected to the goals of the Agenda 2030. The UN Youth Delegate Programme 2019: SIOI-UNA Italy in collaboration with the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is promoting and organizing the third edition of the United Nations Youth Delegate Programme for Italian students (UNDYP Italy). Two young Italians aged between 18 and 30 will be selected for accompanying the government’s diplomatic delegation to the 74th UN General Assembly and represent the instances of young people at the highest level. 

ZEROHACKATHON 2019- SIOI - UNA Italy, in partnership with the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, the United States Embassy to Italy and the Royal Norvegian Embassy, is launching the third edition of #ZeroHackathon on Oceans and Polar Connections . This youth competition of ideas will focus on the role of sustainable development to address the consequences of climate change in the Arctic, Antarctic and Oceans. More than 200 highly motivated young students from high schools and universities all around the world will gather in Rome on 2-4 October 2019. 

Participants are invited to develop innovative, high-impact ideas and projects to promote international cooperation, rising awareness on the most pressing issues related to Oceans and Poles, strengthening resilience of multi-scale changes, addressing the rapidly changing climate and the consequences of pollution, improving a safe and secure use of marine protected areas and the Arctic and Antarctic resources. 

In collaboration with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Italy and the High North Center for Business and Governance - Nord University (Bodø, Norway), SIOI UNA Italy SIOI will organize, on October 1st, a new edition of the International Symposium "Arctic Connections: a trust-building Arctic cooperation on Energy and Security". The event is part of a broader project of SIOI "Arctic Connections" which aims to strengthen bilateral relations with the Member States and Observatories of the Arctic Council, identifying possible areas of cooperation and dialogue. 

Through these initiatives, SIOI UNA Italy also aims to raise awareness among new generations and public opinion about the importance 

of sustainable economic growth and the consequences of climate change affecting the entire planet. Our mission is to foster the UN values and goals, spread knowledge of international policy issues through research and public conferences, promote the inclusion of young people on decision making at highest level through education and training, investigate issues such as global change, sustainable development, terrorism threats and international cooperation as core items in our Master courses. 

 We strongly believe that the United Nations - guided by the universal values enshrined in the Charter - has made the difference for a shared progress: diplomacy for peace, climate action, achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), digital innovation, fair globalization, global compacts on migration and refugees. 

In our rapidly changing world the values of peace, justice, human dignity, tolerance and solidarity are under attack but we need to drive our world forward by accelerating joint efforts to build security and stability around the globe. We need even more a shared vision for a global action. 

It’s clear that this meeting represents a great opportunity to renew and strengthen our cooperation and paving the way to future joint projects. We are honoured by your presence here. Thank you again for joining us. I wish you a fruitful meeting and please enjoy Rome in all its beauty!

Roma, 14 maggio 2019- Si è svolta oggi alla SIOI alla presenza del Presidente Franco Frattini e del Segretario Generale della Farnesina Elisabetta Belloni la Cerimonia di Consegna dei Diplomi del Master in Studi Diplomatici per l'anno accademico 2018-2019.

Il Master in Studi Diplomatici della SIOI organizzato d'intesa con il Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale prepara alle prove scritte del Concorso Diplomatico. Le prove di selezione per l'accesso al Master in Studi Diplomatici 2019/2020 si svolgeranno il 2 e 3 luglio pv.

Il Presidente Frattini e l'Amb. Belloni, dopo aver parlato con i giovani studenti sul ruolo del diplomatico nell'attuale contesto internazionale,  hanno consegnato i diplomi e si sono intrattenuti per le foto di rito.

United Nations Youth Delegate Programme- Italy 2019-2020 

SIOI Call for Application:Il prossimo Youth Delegate alle Nazioni Unite potresti essere tu!

In Italia, il Programma UNYD è promosso e organizzato dalla SIOI UNA-Italy, in collaborazione con Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale.

Deadline per l'invio delle candidature: 14 giugno 2019 

Anche quest’anno l'Italia partecipa allo UN Youth Delegate Programme che consentirà a due giovani di prendere parte alla 74ma Assemblea Generale ONU. Il programma delle Nazioni Unite prevede, infatti, l’inclusione di giovani presso le missioni diplomatiche nazionali all’ONU ed è attivo in 37 paesi. 

In Italia, il Programma UNYD è promosso e organizzato dalla SIOI UNA-Italy, in collaborazione con il Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale. 

Intervista a Franco Frattini - Frattini: costruiamo muri per poter nascondere le nostre responsabilità 

Avvenire, 19 Dicembre 2018

Paolo Lambruschi -II traffico di armi, gli squilibri che creano migrazioni, la corruzione e i vizi della politica e lo spazio negato ai giovani di qualità. Sono le sottolineature del Messaggio papale per la Giornata mondiale della pace 2019 che hanno toccato Franco Frattini, 61 anni, due volte ministro degli Esteri con i governi di Silvio Berlusconi e commissario europeo alla Giustizia, libertà e sicurezza. Oggi è tornato in magistratura. 

Partiamo dalle armi. Il Papa denuncia l'escalation e la proliferazione incontrollata. Cosa suggerisce la sua esperienza di governo? 

Il Papa ha toccato il tema più delicato, il primo pericolo. Dietro alla proliferazione c'è un enorme traffico che non risparmia nessuno. Gli Stati più grandi - Usa, Cina, Russia - vendono a Paesi "amici" grandi quantità di armi e la proliferazione crea aree del globo che sono autentiche polveriere. La minaccia di Trump di disdettare l'accordo di non proliferazione è pericolosa perché da 'impressione che ci si possa riarmare. Non a caso la Russia ha ricominciato a dispiegare missili di media gittata e nell'area mediorientale si fronteggiano due potenze probabilmente con armi nucleari come Israele e Iran e una terza, l'Arabia Saudita, che non avrebbe difficoltà a procacciarsele. C'è un esempio virtuoso, un gesto unilaterale da imitare, il Kazakistan, che pochi conoscono: dopo il crollo dell'Urss si ritrovò con il più grande numero di testate nucleari dell'impero sovietico e il presidente Nazarbayev decise di smantellarle. 

Perché sono minacce alla pace la xenofobia e la tendenza, non solo dei politici italiani, di incolpare in modo insostenibile i migranti di ogni male? Perché ci occupiamo di migranti solo quando arrivano a casa nostra per nascondere la colpa del mondo ricco di non avere investito nelle zone di origine. Invece di costruire muri, dovevamo promuovere sviluppo sostenibile in Africa, oggi semicolonizzata dalla Cina e terra di scorribande di milizie islamiche. Non c'è pace con i flussi dalle aree di origine e con queste tensioni in nazioni di destinazione mai state xenofobe dove la gente si sente invasa e vuole respingere. Ma questa Europa distratta e avara ha destinato meno di un miliardo all'Africa contro i 5 miliardi alla Turchia per fermare i rifugiati siriani. 

La corruzione e la sete di potere sono veri pericoli? 

La rettitudine è precondizione per la vita politica. Poi ci vogliono competenza, capacità di ascolto e possibilmente doti elencate nel decalogo del cardinale Van Thuan citato da Francesco. Dico solo che negli Usa le selezioni dei due partiti partono dal lavoro. Se uno non ha un mestiere né spalle robuste viene scartato. Da noi i giovani migliori vengono esclusi.

Si è conclusa la quinta edizione del Premio Italia Giovane, iniziativa dell’Associazione Giovani per Roma che ha l’obiettivo di valorizzare giovani talenti under 35 in ambito professionale, accademico, artistico e culturale. 

L’edizione 2018 ha ricevuto anche il riconoscimento della medaglia di rappresentanza del Presidente della Repubblica Sergio Mattarella. La cerimonia si è tenuta presso la sede della Luiss Business School di Roma e ha visto la presenza di numerosi esponenti delle istituzioni e del mondo accademico. 

Presenti Matteo Salvini, ministro dell’Interno; Franco Frattini, presidente Sioi; Raffaele Oriani, associate Dean Luiss Business School; Franco Massi, segretario generale Corte dei Conti, Fabio Fortuna, rettore Università Niccolò Cusano, Gennaro Terracciano, pro rettore Università di Roma Foro Italico. Presenti anche i delegati giovanili alle Nazioni Unite – Sioi 2017 Giuseppina De Marco e Tommaso Murè. 

Ad introdurre l’evento Franco Frattini, presidente del comitato d’onore, che ha sottolineato come il Premio rappresenti “un messaggio di ottimismo: in molti casi i giovani premiati questa sera lavorano in Italia e per l’Italia in tantissimi settori. Sono convito che un Paese che si rispetti debba aiutare i propri talenti a rimanere. Penso che l’Italia – ha aggiunto – debba fare uno sforzo in più: cerchiamo di non prendere lezioni da altri nel farci sfilare questi talenti”. 

“Il Premio Italia Giovane porta alla luce tantissime storie di Giovani eccellenze che meritano di essere conosciute. Il nostro Paese non può che migliorare per dare opportunità ai Giovani: meno tasse e meno burocrazia innanzitutto”, ha detto Matteo Salvini che durante la serata è stato intervistato da Frattini. 

Alla platea di 'under 35', scherzando, Salvini ha detto "non fate il mio mestiere" aggiungendo " ma spero che qui dentro ci sia qualcuno che, dopo tanti anni di carriera, decida di mettersi al servizio del proprio Comune o del proprio Paese".

“Lo spirito del Premio Italia Giovane – ha aggiunto Paolo Boccardelli, direttore della Luiss – rispecchia pienamente la missione della Luiss Business School. Il nostro impegno è quello di formare Giovani talenti e di supportarli nel percorso di crescita personale e professionale, affinché diventino leader consapevoli, in grado di affrontare le sfide future con il coraggio di cambiare le cose in meglio. Questo Premio, che valorizza e promuove il successo unito al talento, trova a Villa Blanc la sua casa”. 

Centrali, nell’edizione 2018, i temi quali Innovazione e Digitalizzazione, come ha sottolineato il presidente del Premio, Andrea Chiappetta: “La sfida più grande per la mia generazione è quella di sapere incanalare i grandi cambiamenti tecnologici attraverso forze e competenze positive, cavalcarli, renderli viatico di benessere. Il principale potenziale del Premio Italia Giovane – prosegue – è quello di costituire una rete di talenti che lavora per plasmare un futuro che abbia saputo cogliere le sfide del digitale, cavalcarle, vincerle, tutelare anche arti e mestieri che di digitale non hanno proprio nulla, e che possano lavorare per essere fattori abilitanti del cambiamento, del rinnovamento, della cura del merito, della sfida vinta col futuro”.  I 15 premiati dell'edizione 2018 sono il frutto di una selezione tra 150 candidature provenienti da tutta Italia.

Roma, 8 novembre 2018

SUSCO BUDAPEST 2018 – Environmental Migration – discusses issues on global climate-induced migration, understanding links between environmental constraints and social responses.

The 5th East-Central European Conference on Sustainable Development was held on 11 October 2018 at Eiffel Palace, Budapest

It points out the current changing environmental conditions around the globe and highlights the most affected regions, while searching for answers to questions, such as which are the interlinkages between human mobility and climatic factors. 

The migratory phenomenon, which is not only at the forefront of the European agenda but also at that of the International Community, is certainly one of those issues that has many dimensions, because there are many causes that induce or often force millions and millions of people in the world to leave their country to look elsewhere for a better future for themselves and their families.

Certainly, we know the immigration of those who come from African countries, in many cases because they flee from war, from crisis situations, from persecution; in many cases because they simply do not have jobs, they are looking for an opportunity to make money in Europe, and certainly poverty and humanitarian dramas are among the most recurrent causes of mass migration. Another important global theme that has been on the agenda of the United Nations for a long and long time, and on which the international community seeks proposals and solutions - not always with great results - is climate change and, connected to that, the theme of the protection of the environment in which we live.

Surely the great environmental issue, the issue of climate change, beyond the research that science is conducting - and I note that many people talk about it, but few know the subject in detail - has to do with immigration, in the sense that one of the factors that can induce or force women and children to emigrate is an alteration of the ecosystem, an alteration of the earth, of living conditions due to climatic effects, due to pollution or, more generally, to environmental degradation.

A first geographical scenario where this link between environmental degradation and emigration is particularly evident is found in Africa, with increasing desertification. In many Saharan and Sub-Saharan African countries, arid areas and desert areas are expanding; water resources are shrinking and we must imagine in a not distant future that, for example, water and access to drinking water will be one of the reasons for greater conflicts and friction, if not even war, between neighbouring countries that access the same basins for food, for irrigation, in short for life. Consider, for all, the increasingly dramatic situation of the Great Lake Chad, which bathes the coasts of countries that are in one of the arid areas of Saharan Africa most affected by migration problems, by immigration flows from south to north, but also by penetrations of extremely dangerous groups, cells, organizations of Islamic terrorism. And no doubt this situation has, and can always have, greater effects if we consider, for example, the growing exploitation of the Nile, which brings Sudan and Egypt to an ever-stronger contrast on the sustainability of the river exploitation and its consequences.

I remember - from the time when I was the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs - the terrible drought and famine that struck Kenya between 2008 and 2009, creating flows of millions of environmental refugees fleeing from areas where the desert was advancing, famine and lack of water and food were become total; obviously they burdened on neighbouring countries that had to set up refugee camps destined to host millions of desperate people, not for a few days or for weeks but for long, long time. We are therefore talking of phenomena that link a further migratory pressure to natural facts, linked precisely to environment. And certainly, next to desertification, as mentioned, there is the lack of resources (agricultural, water resources); there is the impossibility of cultivation and breeding; but certainly also the difficult relationship between the growing urbanization, which led to the formation of huge cities with people who left the countryside, and the terrible pollution of these megalopolises, in which millions and millions of people live, especially in the suburbs, in really terrible conditions. 

Immigration is therefore fuelled by concrete imminent threats, by the impossibility of continuing to live in a degraded or heavily polluted environmental situation or, more simply, by the combination of factors. Environmental degradation is often accompanied by depletion, because natural resources, the possibility of producing, and the possibility of cultivation are less; and - because along with environmental degradation and poverty there is often the lowering of the level of security - by the serious risk of crime that takes possession of entire territories.

All these phenomena, combined together, increase the despair of millions and millions of people and often force them to emigrate. It is evident - in this global scenario - that each country cannot have its own strategy, its own policy, its exclusively own national decisions. It is therefore evident too that such global phenomena require the implementation of global policies and global strategies, first of all by the system that is based and focuses on the United Nations which - not surprisingly - has long been looking forward to elaborate shared policies on the subject of environment and mass migrations.
As far as we Europeans are concerned, I believe once again that both the prevention and environmental protection strategies and those relating to the governance of immigration must be European policies and not national policies. In my opinion, the interventions to be taken should be concentrated above all on prevention.

Environmental prevention means, first of all, trying to contribute to the reduction of pollution levels, according to the rules and principles of the Paris Convention on climate and of the guidelines that have progressively been adopted; in fact, as it is well-known, Europe is a major producer of emissions into the atmosphere, and at the same time a positive and convinced player in the challenge to reduce emissions into the atmosphere and therefore pollution. So far, Europe has done more and better than what great global players have done - from the United States to China to India; and it has therefore set a good example on the availability of concrete instruments for a real reduction of global pollution.

However, it is clear that Europe, as well as the strategies of the United Nations, should concentrate on the most vulnerable regions of the world, those where the perverse effects of environmental degradation are most felt. It is essential that prevention measures for pollution are multiplied. I am referring, for example, to the huge metropolises that have been created in many African or Asian countries, where the level of pollution is really unbearable and where a planning of interventions, a concerted action for reduction instruments aiming to mitigate the environmental impact of life lack completely - while it would be indispensable. Then, in the areas of the world at risk of new desertification (in particular in Africa), it would be necessary to promote - as Italy has always done, albeit on a limited scale - agricultural projects to recover arable land to the desert, to employ labour helping at the same time environment and employment, because evidently agricultural land requires farmers, requires continuous processing and therefore gives new possibilities for employment, instead of emigration due to desperation and poverty.

I think that Europe could promote an environmental project for Africa, putting it among the guidelines of a recipe to prevent migratory phenomena, to ensure that millions of people do not leave for Europe when it is too late, perhaps, via the Mediterranean, just to be rejected or repatriated.

That would imply investing on the younger generations, on workers in the agricultural sector who, as I said, can help at the same time to save the land from the desert and to save so many families from poverty and unemployment. Europe should use the Fund for Africa in the best possible way, for example. That is a Fund that has so far been financed with a totally inadequate amount, less than one billion euros, less than what, for example, Europe has committed itself to giving for the prevention of illegal immigration for Turkey alone.

I think, for example, that if we invest a few billion euros through the Fund for Africa in projects of clean energy, environmental rehabilitation, agriculture, we could at the same time intervene on prevention against environmental degradation and on the deepest root of immigration that reaches our territories, that is unemployment and poverty.

I believe that Europe would have everything to gain by investing in the territories of origin of immigration, with targeted projects, without delivering a blank check in the hands of governments that are often hit by very serious phenomena of widespread corruption, but taking care directly of the planning, the realization of these projects and the disbursement of European taxpayers' money, in order to make it reach a right destination: a new rehabilitation project, a new dam to make the most of water, a new system of agricultural machinery to produce crops even in semi-desert areas.

Here, all these projects - I think - could put together our capacity for prevention against migratory flows that we must keep inside the territories of origin rather than fight only when it is too late; at the same time, we would invest in the protection of an environment that is very close to us but that anyway has some reflections on us.

This applies to the protection of the environment in Africa, in Asia, in the remote regions of the Arctic. Everything that happens in those lands, even far from us, will sooner or later certainly affect us too.

This is an important global challenge that requires vision and requires political leadership. There are measures that will bear fruit not today or tomorrow, but we must sow to make possible that the fruit is produced. In fact, if we keep letting things go as we have seen many times, situations will get worse, the quality of the environment and the lives of men will worsen and any intervention to repair will certainly be much more expensive and much more difficult than any intervention aimed at preventing.
I believe “prevention” must be the watchword for us Europeans, if we want to have a word heard on the international scene too.

"Un mondo senza la Russia" presentato alla SIOI il volume di Primakov 

di Marina Tantushyan 

A Roma, presso la sede della Società Italiana per l’Organizzazione Internazionale (SIOI) si è tenuta la presentazione dell’edizione italiana del libro dell’ex primo ministro e dell’ex ministro degli esteri russo Evgenij Primakov “Un mondo senza la Russia? Le conseguenze della miopia politica” (Pacini Editore, 2018).

L'evento è stato organizzato dalla SIOI, dal The Gorchakov Fund e dall’Istituto di Studi Eurasiatici.
"Raramente il pubblico occidentale ha occasione di prendere diretta conoscenza delle fonti russe. Pertanto mettere a disposizione del lettore italiano la traduzione del volume "Un mondo senza la Russia?" di Primakov offre sia una chiave di lettura alternativa di alcune delle più importanti vicende internazionali sia l'opportunità di conoscere un personaggio estremamente complesso e che a buon diritto viene considerato uno dei più importanti statisti della Russia post-sovietica, - lo ha affermato il curatore dell'edizione italiana del libro, Professore dell'Università di Pisa Andrea Giannotti, sottolineando che nel volume Primakov, chiamato da Giannotti il "mostro sacro", traccia degli eventi politici occorsi indicativamente nel decennio 1999-2009.

Questo volume, scritto da un grande politico russo, rappresenta una rara occasione per il lettore italiano di conoscere il punto di vista russo su alcune delle maggiori questioni della politica internazionale e con innumerevoli riferimenti alle vicende interne della Federazione. Dalla crisi in Kosovo alla guerra in Iraq del 2003, dalla minaccia dell'integralismo islamico ai non semplici rapporti fra Mosca e Washington fino al conflitto arabo-israeliano, le attente analisi di Primakov costituiscono un contributo di indubbio interesse. 

Primakov è uno dei più eminenti esponenti politici della Russia contemporanea che tutt'ora resta una delle figure più popolari fra i russi. Giornalista, scienziato, alla guida del Ministero degli affari esteri, capo dei servizi segreti, Primo ministro. I suoi articoli e libri sono ancora, come già nel passato, materia di studio per accademici e diplomatici di molti paesi. Infatti va ricordato un episodio molto importante che è destinato a restare per sempre nella storia della Russia e del mondo intero. Il 24 marzo 1999, Evgenij Maksimovich Primakov volava verso gli Stati Uniti per una visita ufficiale. A metà strada, sull'Oceano Atlantico, il primo ministro russo apprese che le forze combinate della NATO avevano cominciato a bombardare la Serbia, suo stretto alleato. Primakov ordinò immediatamente il rientro a Mosca con una manovra chiamata "Loop di Primakov". La decisione di Primakov era in sintonia con ciò che voleva raggiungere. 

Il Presidente della SIOI, ex-ministro degli esteri Franco Frattini, che ha moderato l'incontro, ha ricordato che Evgenij Primakov ha elaborato il concetto di interesse nazionale e la dottirina della multipolarità. 

"Uno degli spunti importanti che dobbiamo ricordare di Primakov è il recupero nel 1996-99 del concetto di interesse nazionale che per la Russia uscita dalla disgregazione dell'Unione Sovietica fu probabilmente un punto di svolta su cui il Presidente Putin ha fondato la grande parte della sua dottrina politica, fin dal primo mandato. Inoltre, Primakov elaborò una teoria di multipolarismo secondo la quale il mondo unipolare fondato sugli Stati Uniti non potesse reggere. Per Primakov ogni forza ha un vettore che contribuisce al bene comune", - ha spiegato Frattini. 

L'Ambasciatore della Federazione Russa presso la Santa Sede Alexey Avdeev, che è stato il viceministro degli esteri quando Primakov guidava il ministero degli affari esteri, ha invece parlato della creatività di Evgenij Primakov e delle sue capacità umane. 

Durante la presentazione è intervenuto anche il soprannominato amico di Primakov Lamberto Dini che ha condiviso la sua testimonianza personale di profonda conoscenza del grande statista russo, sottolineando i due principi sui quali si fondava tutta la sua attività diplomatica: difendere gli interessi nazionale e della sicurezza della Russia e lavorare per risolvere internazionalmente i conflitti senza aver ricorso alle armi. 

"Primakov pensava che dopo la fine della guerra fredda sarebbe stato possibile una coordinazione delle azioni politiche. Secondo la sua logica, ogni paese doveva perseguire atteggiamenti enormi per evitare i conflitti e le guerre. Primakov era anche convinto che le relazioni tra i paesi dovessero essere guidati dal principio di non-interferenza nelle zone della reciproca influenza. Prima del 2016, elezioni presidenziali negli Stati Uniti, Trump aveva preso una serie di iniziative per stabilire un nuovo rapporto con la Russia. E anche Putin aveva fatto dichiarazioni che andavano nella stessa direzione. Cosi Stati Uniti e la Russia avrebbero avuto la possibilità, la forza e la capacità di prevenire conflitti a cominciare dal Medio Oriente. Purtroppo grazie al nuovo sentimento che è stato creato oggi a causa della presunta interferenza della Russia nella campagna presidenziale americana del 2016, quel tentativo di avvicinamento è stato messo in ginocchio dalle azioni unilaterali che questi due paesi avrebbero dovuto prendere", - ha concluso Lamberto Dini.

Fonte: Sputnik Italia News


Registrazione video del dibattito a cura di Radio Radicale

Autumn School : Il Terrorismo dopo Raqqa. Disarticolare il Jihad della parola 

SIOI, Roma 9-21 novembre 2018 

Il Corso, promosso dalla SIOI e dalla NATO Defence College Foundation, ha l’obiettivo di fornire le conoscenze teoriche ed empiriche necessarie per interpretare le dinamiche politiche internazionali e favorirne il dibattito sugli aspetti più significativi attraverso il contributo di analisti ed esperti selezionati nei settori delle Istituzioni, della ricerca e del giornalismo. 

Destinatari: giovani laureati in tutte le discipline, ai pubblici funzionari civili e militari, operatori privati nel settore della sicurezza, analisti, giornalisti e ricercatori, diplomatici ed avvocati.