Fattori interni e internazionali nella gestione europea delle Guerre Jugoslave. Teorie a confronto

L'eccessivo entusiasmo legato alla fine della guerra fredda fece passare inosservati i chiari segnali di crisi che provenivano dalla Jugoslavia (incluso un rapporto della CIA del 1990 che prevedeva la dissoluzione del paese), la gestione della guerra non fu meno esente da errori ed omissioni. Tutte le maggiori organizzazioni internazionali presenti in Europa intervennero in qualche modo nella gestione del conflitto, ma l'unica presente con un ruolo di primo piano durante tutto il percorso fu la Comunità Europea (CE). Una prospettiva puramente ed esclusivamente neorealista - attenta cioè prioritariamente se non esclusivamente agli interessi degli stati in termini di politica di potenza- è insufficiente a fornire spiegazioni soddisfacenti del comportamento degli Stati oggetto di analisi

Chapter Resilient or Obsolete? Reflections on the Liberal World Order and its Crisis

From its beginnings, in the aftermath of the first post-war period, the liberal order has significantly changed the texture, actors and tones of international politics, aiming to create institutions and rules that harnessed the forces that for centuries led political communities to wage war. Never fully realized, the liberal order has produced the most significant network of connections between societies, going so far as to make war unlikely in the areas where it has established itself most profoundly. An ambitious model which, refusing to separate the peaceful space of liberal democracy from the international one of Westphalian states, it promised widespread well-being, security and prospects for progress for individuals and groups. Today, however, many of its promises have been broken, illiberal actors have taken on ever-increasing economic and political weight, and the liberal world has become fragmented and weakened. Moreover, the crisis of liberal democracy within states and the phenomena of “autocratization”, as well as the difficulty of liberal societies in giving effective responses to the challenges posed by a rapidly evolving technological world, represent challenges that make the liberal order's resilience uncertain. This chapter aims to analyze the main features of the crisis of the liberal order to evaluate its possible evolution

Ups and Downs of NATO-Russia Relations: a Cognitivist Perspective

This article explains the recursive tendency to develop inimical relations between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Russia by pointing at the incompatibility of their strategic cultures—here understood as broad cognitive frameworks subsuming an actor’s self-perception, worldview, and preferred way to use force. NATO and Russia have defined their roles in world politics, decoded the other’s intentions, and undertaken certain practices on the basis of divergent socio-cognitive assumptions. Incompatible strategic cultures bring about clashing grand strategies and generate conflictual relations. The two actors think differently and therefore read and react to a same situation in divergent ways. As a product of socially-embedded dynamics, NATO-Russia enmity cannot be easily overcome - if not in the long term and via sustained interaction. After presenting their theoretical framework, the authors reconstruct NATO’s and Russia’s strategic cultures, and then discuss the Ukraine crisis as a case study

Pandemics and international security: The outlook for NATO

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a multi-faced impact on Western societies, quickly moving from a health crisis to a broader phenomenon deeply affecting the socio-economic and political landscapes. Multilateral institutions had to cope with unprecedented challenges, while the pandemic exposed existing patterns of great power competition applied to the global race for personal protective equipment, vaccines, and relevant raw materials. Nations – at least initially – seemed to abandon well- established patterns of cooperation to revert to national solutions to this very global challenge. Global economy experienced disruptions in trade and in the functioning of the Global Value Chains (GVCs), as well as significant redistributions of wealth through drastic downs and ups of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) across the world. In less than two years, the pandemic experience prompted a deep revision of standard views on critical interdependencies, diversification, resilience of GVCs and security of supplies. When it comes to international security, the pandemic mostly acted as a catalyst of existing trends, such as the geopolitical competition between the United States (US) and China – which has worsened, also due to the outbreak of the disease. As for the armed forces, in several NATO countries including France, Italy and the United Kingdom (UK), they have been called to operate in support of civilian authorities to deal with Covid-related aspects such as field hospitals, logistics, law enforcement, Covid tests or the vaccines’ distribution – and NATO itself provided support through its bodies such as the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC)

The European Migration System and Global Justice. A First Appraisal

Migration is at the heart of the current political debate in Europe. Moreover, the migration crisis has disclosed a number of normative and ethical issues connected to the current management of migration in the EU. This report provides a preliminary insight into the EU’s policy on migration. It looks specifically at the terms the EU chooses, the definitions it devises and the concepts and understandings it endorses in its migration policies. In order to grasp the actual working of an emerging EU Migration System of Governance (EUMSG), the same terms, concepts and definitions are also examined with reference to a set of national cases: Italy, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Hungary, Greece and Norway

Chapter Il Mediterraneo, tra unità, frammentazione e oblio

In academic and/or cultural debate, the word «Mediterranean» elicits mixed reactions and is revealing of normative considerations and the role of politics. This chapter explores two different perspectives that emerge from the extensive literature on this subject, and suggests a third, inspired by the contemporary trend of the debate (or rather, its absence). First, the chapter examines conceptions of the Mediterranean as a unitary entity or political actor in and of itself. The Mediterranean as a «cradle of civilization», originally described by Braudel, has been taken up more recently by Horden and Purcell, who emphasized the central role of connectivity between local communities, and by the Italian school of geo-philosophy headed by Bassano, for whom the Mediterranean is a specific value system to be respected. A second perspective emphasizes instead the Mediterranean as an area of conflict, characterized by deep fault lines. Huntington's position, captured by the expression «clash of civilizations», has been taken up and reworked by the post-colonial perspective, which sees the Mediterranean as an area characterized by permanent tensions. The chapter suggests a third option, however, noting that the word «Mediterranean» is disappearing from political vocabularies

Chapter Introduzione. Umberto Gori e le Relazioni Internazionali in Italia

Umberto Gori has held the first chair of International Relations in Italy and has been the first scholar to address a series of central topics in the analysis of foreign policy and international politics. Those who browse, even if only rapidly, his rich bibliography cannot but be struck by the great variety of the topics examined: from the first works of a predominantly legal nature, we move on to studies centered on methodological and epistemological issues, relations between states, analysis of foreign policy in general and Italian foreign policy in particular, Peace Research, strategic affairs, intelligence, and finally the impact of the information and digital revolution on international politics and contemporary strategy. What holds together so many different issues is, firstly, a constant attention to methodology and, secondly, a clear preference for a predominantly operational approach, in the belief that knowledge must always be functional to decision and action. These basic attitudes are reflected not only in his strongly characterized research agenda, but also in the twofold nature of his teaching commitment: on the one hand, Gori taught outside the university classrooms, at military and governmental institutions, for decades; on the other hand, he introduced issues traditionally reserved to diplomacy and security institutions into the Italian academic context. Such a propensity to build bridges between different worlds - academic, military, technological, diplomatic, financial - and a research vocation that has never failed make Umberto Gori a figure indissolubly linked to the birth and development of International Relations in Italy

Chapter Umberto Gori: un profilo biobibliografico

Academic biographical profile and scientific publications of Umberto Gori

Space: Exploring NATO’s Final Frontier

Space has become increasingly vital to the security of the Euro-Atlantic region, as acknowledged by 2022 NATO Strategic Concept, presenting the international community with new challenges as it grows more contested, congested and competitive. Allies must enhance cooperation to address these evolving challenges, particularly those arising from potential military activities in space. A cooperation to focus on three critical areas: the multi-purpose applications of space, the increasing number of actors and systems, and the increasingly rapid technological advancements. NATO must strategically evaluate how to sustain its advantage in space, paralleling its strengths in other operational domains. A more united approach would help to deter adversaries, protect allied space assets, and secure an operational edge. This publication explores three key issues: the global space environment and NATO’s strategic posture, the Alliance’s space capabilities and decision-making processes, and the implications of space threats for NATO’s deterrence and defence

Sex moderates the association between the COMT Val158Met single-nucleotide polymorphism and disorderliness facet of novelty seeking

Previous studies have shown inconsistent results regarding the effect of the Val158Met polymorphism of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene on personality and cognition. Here, nonclinical Caucasian university students of Italian origin were administered the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised, Tellegen Absorption Scale, Differential Attentional Processes Inventory, and Waterloo-Stanford Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility. We found that the COMT Val158Met polymorphism was significantly associated with the disorderliness facet of novelty seeking (NS4) and that sex was a moderator of this association. Females with the Met/Met genotype showed higher NS4 scores compared to those with the Val/Met and Val/Val genotypes. No significant genotype effect was found for males. Additionally, we failed to find a significant effect of the COMT gene on attention and hypnotic suggestibility measures. These results provide further evidence for a sex-specific influence on the gene-behaviour associations. Polymorphisms in dopamine system genes are reported to play a crucial role in influencing various aspects of plays a crucial role in influencing various aspects of personality traits and cognitive performance; however, previous studies have shown inconsistent results on the involvment of the functional Val158Met polymorphism of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene. In the present study, nonclinical Caucasian university students of Italian origin were administered the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised, Tellegen Absorption Scale, Differential Attentional Processes Inventory, and Waterloo-Stanford Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility. We found that the COMT Val158Met polymorphism was significantly associated with the disorderliness facet of novelty seeking (NS4) and that sex was a moderator of this association. Females with the Met/Met genotype showed higher NS4 scores compared to those with the Val/Met and Val/Val genotypes. In contrast, no significant genotype effect was found for males. Additionally, we failed to find a significant association of COMT enzyme activity with attention and hypnotic suggestibility measures. These results provide further evidence of a sex-specific influence on the gene-behaviour association