News Report
By Vittoria Caroli / Matthew staff | Edited by Sara Segat
On Wednesday, April 17, 2024 Professor Federigo Argentieri and the journalist Micòl Flammini gave a lesson on the most important and impactful events that characterized the 20th century, arriving at the conflicts that the Middle East is living these days.
The International Relation Society of our University, in collaboration with the Guarini Institute for Public Affairs, invited Micòl Flammini – a journalist of the Italian newspaper Il Foglio –to have a conversation with our Professor Federigo Argentieri about the conflicts that the Middle East is living in these days, looking back at the most important events of the 20th century, which have a strong impact on today’s politics and diplomacy.
Before jumping into an historian immersion and into the actual meeting, it is interesting to state that two people orchestrating the conversation are two personalities of a certain caliber: on one hand we have our JCU Professor Federigo Argentieri, who studied politics and history, keeping an eye on Central-Eastern Europe and Italy; on the other hand Micòl Flammini, a correspondent for the Italian newspaper Il Foglio, who had the opportunity to analyze directly from the battlefields the conflicts and who was involved, from Ukraine to Eastern Europe and Israel.
The meeting started off with a presentation made and explained by Professor Argentieri, where he listed the most important historic events which characterized global history. The presentation was opened by a quote from the famous political scientist Istvan Bibò, who wrote (in 1948) that both World Wars started in Eastern Europe and, if other ones would happen, they would originate in Eastern Europe as well. Pretty interesting and solid point, is it not?
However, right after this brief beginning, the actual recap of the most important conflict started: from the assassination in Sarajevo of Francis Ferdinand, the drop that broke the camel’s back par excellence, to then move to the Christmas Truce, defined Professor Argentieri as “the moment of poetry.” The Russian Revolution was the next event analyzed, the revolution which overthrew the monarchy and caused its collapse, by which the Germans took extreme advantage from. Then, it was the turn of the 1917 Bolshevik takeover rather than a coup d’état, because the results of the election had not been considered.
Consequently, Professor Argentieri gave a short presentation of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, yet the first one who visited Rome while the peace after the war was discussed. He then explained what an active measure is, in the case of Russia: the political warfare of the Russian propaganda. For the 1930s, the major event was of course the Ukraine famine-genocide, considered a preemptive measure, and the Munich Conference. And right after, he mentioned the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and the Soviet-Finnish “winter” war.
And it is when Moldova is nominated that the journalist Micòl Flammini makes her intervention. She started off with the explanation of where Moldova is, stating that it was part of Romania – not anymore now – and of the Soviet Union, then invaded by the Nazis and Romanian soldiers. Moldova is a region that not everyone talks about, yet now it is facing an important conflict, began after the collapse of the Soviet Union, against one of its regions, Transnistria. The latter, boarded with Ukraine, represents a military and political threat. The conflict has started because of the desire of Transnistria of being part of Russia, and it can be understood by the numerous links that it has with it, from the language spoken to the hammer of the flag. However, the “first warnings”, as Flammini said, of this war could be noticed two years before the collapse of Soviet Union: the Ukrainian engineer Smirnoff exposed his desire of remaining part of Soviet Union. He organized a referendum which may be considered the preparation to the Soviet Republic of Transnistria. Micòl gave back the word to Professor Argentieri after said that it is important and interesting to notice how much Moldova’s past has an impact on its present and future.
The conversation continued with the analysis of the other phenomena which characterized the second half of the 20th century, from the “Iron Curtain” of Winston Churchill to the Berlin Wall and, most importantly, the Cold War which, as our professor said was “particularly hot” in the cases of the countries that wanted self determination to take place. Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Hungary in 1956, Indonesia in 1965, the coup d’état in Chile, the situation in Cambodia from 1970 to 1993, arriving to the election of Nelson Mandela and the fall of the Berlin Wall: all these events had a fundamental impact on the global politics in different ways. And finally, the fourth World War has been nominated. The main reason of this conflict is Putin’s objective of conquering back the territories he lost because of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Then, the last intervention of Micòl took place. She engaged the students by asking if we knew anything about the Baltic states; Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. She began explaining how these three countries became free and independent, concentrating more on the process of independence of Lithuania, happened in a very particular way. A human chain, made of millions of people singing national anthems and going against the prohibitions which were applied when Soviet Union was in control. The journalist then told she had been in Lithuania was in July 2023 during the NATO summit, and in Estonia in December 2023 while this country was preparing itself for the war. Last but not least she reserved a few words for another country, Georgia. She explained that Georgia has a similar story to Moldova’s. It is characterized by two different strategic conflicts which started after Russia gave away two regions: South Ossetia and Abkhazia; and it is living a bloody war since 2008, which is similar to the conflict that Ukraine is facing these days.
The meeting ended with a Q&A session, during which both Professor Argentieri and Micòl answered according to their knowledge and experience.
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