Science For Peace

GENERAL FABIO MINI, ITALIAN ARMY (ret.) at the Annual World Conference “Science for Peace”- Milan 20-21 November 2009 Veronesi Foundation Born in 1942.He holds a Business Admin Diploma, an MA and a PhD in Strategic Sciences, two Masters in Humanistic Sciences and one in International Negotiation. He is a 1965 graduate of the Italian Military Academy and in 1978 graduated first in his class at the Army War College. He commanded all levels of “bersaglieri” mechanised units and served as Defense Attaché in Beijing. In 2000 he was Chief of Staff at Nato Southern Europe HQ and in 2002 was Commander of the International Peacekeeping Force in Kosovo (KFOR). His decorations include the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy (OMRI), Six Nato medals for Balkans operations and five international awards. For his performance of duty as Commander of KFOR was awarded the US Legion of Merit and the Military Order of Italy (OMI), the highest military award. He has written and edited ten books and authored more than forty long essays on military and geopolitical issues. His more recent book “Soldati” (Soldiers) was published in 2008 by Einaudi. In 2009 he edited the first Italian translation of Hitler’s military conferences 1942-1945. He contributes to many dailies and magazines like La Repubblica, L’Espresso, Aspenia, Eurasia, Limes. He founded and chairs “Peace Generation” an ONG supporting humanitarian demining and clearance of unexploded ordnance. He has been Professor at the University of Pisa’s “Peace Science” course and has lectured in many universities and military schools like the US Naval War College. In 2009 he joined the Faculty of the US Defense Institute of International Legal Studies teaching at their courses in Latin America. He`s married to Gloria and they have a daughter and a son and two grandchildren. Panel : Gen. Mini (Chair) , Awich Pollar, Jens Bartelson, Giovanni Puglisi (Mini’s Introductory remarks- Abstract) Ingredients and wrong recipes for Peace and Security International Organizations, non violent peace Forces and military peacekeeping forces seem to be the right ingredients for reestablishing peace through security in most of the troubled crisis areas of the world. Unfortunately in the last half of century they have not succeeded and peace is still something many countries long for. An obvious reason for the conceptual failure is that they do not work together. Indeed in many instances they fight each other or compete for the same resources. The demand for integration or at least cooperation has always been ignored. Notwithstanding the recurrent demonstration that all crises, humanitarian disasters and wars cannot be solved using only a single tool, cooperation is still an empty word. We can discuss for years and push the pacifists, the military and the international governmental or nongovernmental organizations towards a common effort trying different blending recipes and still we’ll see failures and frustration. We need to recognize that the basic ingredients might be right but every blending recipe will not work because each institution is not tailored to cooperate or even share with others their know-how, resources and responsibility. International Organizations are restrained by bureaucracy, non violent peace forces by ideology and military forces by technicality. Those constraints do not allow the flexibility, the humbleness and the sense of solidarity needed to work together in the prevention, management and follow-up of the crises. All institutions must rethink their philosophy, role and structure in order to ensure a successful blending.