Antonio Armellini traces the genesis of the Paris Charter in a volume published by the University of Trento. Armellini was ambassador to the CSCE (Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe), in Algeria and India
When the world changes, as happened in the period following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, is it possible to establish a framework of rules capable of making the transformation orderly, avoiding repercussions destined to weigh in the future? The substantially prohibitive undertaking, as we understand by reading the book by Ambassador Antonio Armellini Italy and the Paris Charter of the CSCE for a new Europepublished by the University of Trento. What was achieved in the post-Cold War negotiations held in Vienna from July to November 1990, retraced by the author with attention and intelligence, continues to represent a valid lesson also for our troubled present: multilateralism and diplomacy are, and must always remain, the only tools available to the international community to guarantee stability and resolve disputes. At that time, the acceleration was lightning-fast, thanks to the thrust of a desire for freedom that had been repressed for too long, and overwhelmed the effort to manage changes. Now, in the face of an equally rapid but negative acceleration, culminating in the war in Ukraine, the same collective commitment would be necessary to outline a scenario in which the choice of aggression is not the winning one. In short, European security is a concept to be reconstructed by looking also at the heritage we have behind us.
The past not to be forgotten both that diplomatic masterpiece that was the Helsinki Final Act in 1975, thanks to which once unthinkable glimpses were opened in the context of the East-West clash, and the attempt to re-establish the Helsinki process fifteen years later ( in which the dynamism of a Europe that was taking its first common political steps was distinguished) with the adoption of the Charter of Paris: a highly intelligent document that foreshadowed a transition to a shared democracy then made impossible by the rapid shattering of the socialist world. But, as Armellini (who was ambassador to CSCE, Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as in Algeria and India) argues, the tools put in place then – the “machine” and also the spirit – could nevertheless find renewed relevance. when, inevitably, it will be necessary to decide whether and what to negotiate, identifying the point of fall between countries no longer divided into ideologically incompatible but strongly opposed blocs.
In addition to giving useful indications for today by analyzing a central moment in the recent history of international relations, Italy and the Paris Charter of the CSCE for a new Europe (which contains an introduction by Giuseppe Nesi, an afterword by Ettore Greco and a detailed analysis of the Charter of Paris edited by Stefano Baldi, Fabio Cristiani, Pier Benedetto Francese, Natalino Ronzitti and Paolo Trichilo) also represents a sort of diplomacy manual multilateral which effectively tells the secrets and the rough edges of a complex negotiation. A negotiation also marked by epochal turning points, such as when German unification was announced on October 3, 1990. What happens to a country’s delegation when that country disappears? Armellini says that West German ambassador Detlev Graf zu Rantzau, who applied the instructions received to the letter adding to it a dose of Prussian harshness, he even prevented a farewell farewell to his colleague from the GDR, stating that representatives of a nation that had ceased to exist had also ceased to exist. It therefore happened that all the diplomats and officers of Eastern German rank, then purged because they were considered too compromised with the Communist Party, disappeared as if by magic. It will also be a somewhat incongruous comparison, but this distant story suggests in contrast to the obsequious treatment that, instead, the men of the current Kremlin leader sometimes receive in the world. Despite everything they are responsible for.
The book and the author
Italy and the Paris Charter of the CSCE for a new Europe by Antonio Armellini (introduction by Giuseppe Nesi, afterword by Ettore Greco, contributions by Stefano Baldi, Fabio Cristiani, Pier Benedetto Francese, Natalino Ronzitti and Paolo Trichilo) published by the University of Trento (Scientific Editorial, pp. XII, 316, euro 20 , digital version downloadable from the Iris Archive of the University). Antonio Armellini was ambassador to CSCE (Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe), in Algeria and India
August 2, 2022 (change August 2, 2022 | 21:22)
© Time.News