SARAJEVO BELGRADO :
The university cooperation program in support of the peace process in the Balkans began in Sarajevo in the late 1990s with the arrival of Professor Massimo Caneva, along with General Roberto Martinelli of the Defense Staff, on a C-130 flight operated by the Italian Air Force as part of the peacekeeping forces deployed to Sarajevo. The first initiative in this university cooperation was the conference of rectors from Balkan universities, organized in 2000 by Professor Caneva with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the peacekeeping forces stationed in Sarajevo. All universities in the Balkans—particularly those in the former Yugoslavia took part in that meeting, with the exception of Belgrade, where President Milosevic was still in power.
Subsequently, a delegation from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”—led by the Vice Rector for International Relations and Professor Caneva—traveled to Belgrade to meet the new rector of the University of Belgrade in the aftermath of President Milosevic’s fall. This marked a very concrete beginning of cooperation, including with that university. Subsequently, in 2001, a meeting was organized at the Italian peacekeeping headquarters in Sarajevo between the rector of Sarajevo and the rector of Belgrade to sign a university cooperation agreement for dialogue and peace. Italian military peacekeepers escorted the rector from Belgrade to the Italian headquarters at Tito Barak in Sarajevo, where the agreement was signed.
Following this agreement in Sarajevo between the two university presidents, the Master’s program in Public Administration and Humanitarian Affairs was established, bringing together faculty and students from the two universities in Sarajevo and Belgrade to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the region’s new geopolitical reality.
Of great importance was the collaboration with the military peacekeeping forces of SFOR, and later EUFOR, throughout the entire program from 2000 to 2026.
Draft program: AFTER DAYTON FIRST AESI MISSION FOR PEACE IN SARAJEVO 17/11/2026
