AESI MESSAGE TO THE STUDENTS 2027
13 OCTOBER 2026
(By invitation)
Prof. Massimo Maria Caneva MD PhD – AESI President
We are living through particularly dramatic times on the international stage, and it is becoming increasingly clear that we need to nurture and prepare new generations who possess not only the ability to analyze but also to understand and think creatively in finding solutions to what we might call complex crises. In fact, interethnic and religious conflicts and struggles often occur within geopolitical contexts that are also marked by significant natural risks, such as disasters, earthquakes, floods, and epidemics: This clearly highlights a new need for understanding and analyzing these challenges, followed by concerted international action to address these crises, which—with globalization now in full swing—affect not only large regions of our country but the entire global community.
For this reason, AESI aims to strengthen this strategy, which is designed to promote a culture of security and diplomacy in the international context in support of peace and integration processes, especially in crisis areas. Clearly, considerable experience is needed to promote such activities, especially in the fields of diplomacy and university cooperation, where it is important to facilitate collaborative relationships with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Holy See, international organizations, the United Nations, and the European Union. Thanks to this mutual understanding, we can plan activities that build mutual trust in promoting this new strategy, which is based on three fundamental pillars at the international level: diplomacy, which is a central element of foreign policy; universities and university cooperation, which involves not only academic collaboration—such as exchanges of researchers and students—but also the active role of universities on the ground in crisis areas, supporting diplomacy and international organizations; and, finally, the United Nations, peacekeeping forces, and the European Union. These three pillars—universities, UN peacekeeping forces, and the European Union—constitute a unique element of this new strategy, which was first promoted by AESI.
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POPE LEO XIV
“MAGNIFICA HUMANITATIS”
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The culture of power
188. In our time, a culture of power is taking hold, in which the availability of resources and the ability to dominate tend to dictate the agenda and criteria for decision-making. In this way, the common good of humanity is relegated to the background and the concrete tragedy of peoples at war is reduced to a secondary consideration in relation to strategic interests. This culture of power infiltrates society, changes relationships and behaviors, and grows by normalizing war, pursuing ever-greater military power, taking advantage of the crisis of multilateralism and fueling a false realism that insists that there is no alternative.
