La casa Europa e la Germania. Una riflessione sul ruolo tedesco in Europa alla luce degli ultimi cinque anni di crisi globali

As pointed out by many scholars, Germany is going through a period marked by a deep crisis of the major German parties, characterized by the advance of the Populist Party and the far right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AFD). In 2018 this situation seemed to be a harbinger of change, not only internally, but also in what we can now call Germany's European policy. It is therefore an extremely relevant issue, since the history of Germany is closely linked to that of the European Community, itself in constant transfor-mation, and which in turn, over time and for the Germans, has taken on the function of "cage" (1949-1965), "cradle" (1966-1990) and "frame" (1991-2012). The present work, therefore, in addition to retrac-ing, in detail, the salient moments of the relationship between Europe and the Federal Republic of Germany first and then Germany, wants to be a first reflection on the current relationship between Germany and the European Union in light of the crises that have characterized the last five years of global relations: from the Syrian crisis to the Covid-19 pandemic

A twenty-five year transition. The forms of power and the alleged crisis of the nation-state in the contemporary age

In the aftermath of the Soviet collapse, we witnessed the end of the idea of a division of the world between good and bad, between capitalists and proponents of the planned economy, between right and left, between pro-Communists and pro-Americans; and again, disappeared the need of so many emerging countries to define themselves as a “third block” as opposed to the bipolar system. The economic idea of a first, second and third world could have been considered overcome. The world was forced to re-read itself and to understand that it was necessary to start thinking about international relations in a completely different way.Después del colapso soviético, fuimos testigos del fin de la idea de una división del mundoentre el bien y el mal, entre capitalistas y partidarios de la economía planificada, entre la derecha y la izquierda, entre procomunistas y proamericanos; y de nuevo desapareció la necesidad de tantos países emergentes de definirse como un “tercer bloque” frente al sistema bipolar. La idea económica de un primer, segundo y tercer mundo podría haberse considerado superada. El mundo se vio obligado a releerse a sí mismo y a comprender que era necesario empezar a pensar en las relaciones internacionales de una manera completamente diferente

A twenty-five year transition. The forms of power and the alleged crisis of the nation-state in the contemporary age

Después del colapso soviético, fuimos testigos del fin de la idea de una división del mundo entre el bien y el mal, entre capitalistas y partidarios de la economía planificada, entre la derecha y la izquierda, entre procomunistas y proamericanos; y de nuevo desapareció la necesidad de tantos países emergentes de definirse como un “tercer bloque” frente al sistema bipolar. La idea económica de un primer, segundo y tercer mundo podría haberse considerado superada. El mundo se vio obligado a releerse a sí mismo y a comprender que era necesario empezar a pensar en las relaciones internacionales de una manera completamente diferente

Tedeschi, europeisti nonostante tutto

Are Germans still pro-Europe? And, even more, may the current behaviour of German Government be called pro-Europe? This work deals with this interesting topic analyz-ing, on one hand, the European policy of German govern-ment, from Adenauer to the current Chancellor Merkel, on the other hand, the European feeling of German citizens. For a long time Europe has been for Germans the only place in which – and through which – it would be possible to re-cover the sovereignty and reunification. To achieve this, Germans would have to be more European than Europe-ans. What did it happen after the reunification? And, more recently, did the economic crisis change German attitude toward Europe? Retracing the political cornerstones of Germany's european membership and then using the Eurobarometer data, comparing the German data to the French and Italian ones, the paper analyses the existing and unquestionably unique link between Germany and Europe

Helping Hungarians

“Helping Hungarians” tells of what was, in the late autumn of 1956, the British attention to the Hungarian cause. The idea behind this article is to give back the feeling of serious trouble, of relative communion and embryonic desire of helping young Hungarian refugees, who still believed possible to free their country from Soviet's yoke. Based on documents of the National Archives (London), the article highlights the unresolved English mood towards the Hungarian cause, burdened by the contemporary Suez crisis

L'emergere di una nuova leading power, tra potenza economica e modello culturale

2014 - 2015The work is a contribution to the understanding of one of the most interesting topic in our history: the Germany's transformation from an aggressive state to an international power, today shared and necessary. The volume is divided into four different topics: the first, dedicated to the close relationships between Europe and Germany; the second, is about the path of liberation followed by Germany from the constraints of World War II - the only prerequisite for the recovery of the German central role in the international scene; the third, dedicated to the German economy, itself a driving force of the political and cultural success of the German nation; a fourth, dedicated to the constituent elements of the German cultural model. Finally, the book analyzes the difficult German relationship with rearmament both atomic and conventional. It follows an articulated analysis on the concept of power and on the role now played by Germany in the European and international scene. [edited by Author]XIV n.s

Peculiarities of Functional Connectivity—including Cross-Modal Patterns—in Professional Karate Athletes: Correlations with Cognitive and Motor Performances

Professional karate is a sport activity requiring both physical and psychological skills that have been associated with a better "global neural efficacy." By means of resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), we investigated the neural correlates of cognitive and kinematic abilities in a group of 14 professional karateka and 14 heathy matched controls. All subjects underwent an extensive cognitive test battery for the identification of individual multidimensional cognitive profile and rs-fMRI scans investigating functional connectivity (FC). Moreover, kinematic performances in athletes were quantified by the Ergo-Mak, an integrated system developed for measuring motor reactivity, strength, and power of athletic gestures. Karateka performed significantly better than controls in the visual search task, an ability linked with increased positive correlations in FC between the right superior parietal lobe and bilateral occipital poles. Kinematic performances of athletic feats were sustained by increased positive correlations between subcortical (cerebellum and left thalamus) and cortical (inferior frontal cortex, superior parietal cortex, superior temporal cortex) regions. An unexpected FC increase between auditory and motor-related areas emerged in karateka, possibly reflecting a cross-modal coupling due to the continuous exposure to either internal or external auditory cues, positing this sensory channel as a possible target for novel training strategies. Results represent a further step in defining brain correlates of "neural efficiency" in these athletes, whose brain can be considered a model of continuous plastic train-related adaptation

A twenty-five year transition. The forms of power and the alleged crisis of the nation-state in the contemporary age

In the aftermath of the Soviet collapse, we witnessed the end of the idea of a division of the world between good and bad, between capitalists and proponents of the planned economy, between right and left, between pro-Communists and pro-Americans; and again, disappeared the need of so many emerging countries to define themselves as a “third block” as opposed to the bipolar system. The economic idea of a first, second and third world could have been considered overcome. The world was forced to re-read itself and to understand that it was necessary to start thinking about international relations in a completely different way.Después del colapso soviético, fuimos testigos del fin de la idea de una división del mundoentre el bien y el mal, entre capitalistas y partidarios de la economía planificada, entre la derecha y la izquierda, entre procomunistas y proamericanos; y de nuevo desapareció la necesidad de tantos países emergentes de definirse como un “tercer bloque” frente al sistema bipolar. La idea económica de un primer, segundo y tercer mundo podría haberse considerado superada. El mundo se vio obligado a releerse a sí mismo y a comprender que era necesario empezar a pensar en las relaciones internacionales de una manera completamente diferente

La fine della (in)sostenibile corsa. Gli stati europei tra rigido neoliberismo e salvaguardia del welfare (2007-2017)

In times of populism and Euroscepticism, it is appropriate to reflect once again on what has been and still is the long economic crisis (2007-2017) which has upset the European and world economic system. A crisis that has challenged European democracies, unable to secure citizens' rights and basic services, and with them the EU project. The paper is an attempt to scrutinize the events that have taken place over the last ten years, and to analyze with the utmost objectivity the role played by different Europeancountries and, above all, by Germany in countering or aggravating the crisis in the so-called Euro area. The crisis, triggered by US subprime, is a structural, systemic crisis one, rooted in poor manage-ment of public affairs by the so-called advanced economies, which had long cradled in the idea of an “unstoppable growth”. The paper is based on the documents of the Bank for International Regulations, as well as on a reasoned bibliograph

Lo sguardo italiano sulla nascente geopolitica navale americana (1920)

The end of the Great War brought with it a strong downsizing of the Italian, French and Rus-sian naval fleets and, last but not least, and caused the disappearance of the German naval fleet, the lat-ter firmly wanted by William II and itself decisive element of that idea of a "proof of strength" that had been affirmed between the end of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century. Unexpectedly, as a result of this momentous change, new spaces of commercial opportunity opened up and, above all, new possibilities in the field of the balance of power between the naval powers were disclosed. These ex-traordinary opportunities were clear to the American presidential candidates, who in the early summer of 1920 were competing for the role of republican and democratic presidential candidate. Moreover, Wash-ington had never hidden in the years before the war that it wanted to play a more audacious role at a global level, in full competition with the British Royal Navy. The one, whether democratic or republican, who had won the elections would have had the chance to redesign the US political and naval role at the global level and at the same time guarantee the best commercial platform for American products and manufactured goods. On the basis of the reports of the Italian naval attaché at the Royal Italian Embassy in Washington DC, Piero Civalleri, the paper deals with the launch of the new US naval policy, an in-strument of the future American economic power, whose deductions and analyses were the basis of the future Washington Naval Agreements