European Union and Russian Federation University cooperation for peace and solidarity
One of the basic challenges for the XXI Century is international peace and development in the light
of the new world balance. Today, there are problems that can only be solved by action at the global
level. New strategic thinking is required to approach global issues and advance “global public
goods”. Consequently, international communities must become protagonists of a new strategy to
intervene in crisis areas and to promote peace, human rights and development with a strategy
based on realistic and effective foreign common policy.
Such a strategy must include the collaborative efforts of all the “international actors” while being
rooted in the common goal of development of a strong cooperation culture of solidarity capable of
understanding local needs and providing quick and efficient solutions that are at once professional
and respectful of human dignity. Such a strategy must rely on cultural expertise and include expert
knowledge of the theoretical elements of crisis and development management and the capability to
understand the real comprehensive needs of the populations, and their historical and cultural roots
in order to give effective answers to them, and to promote peace and development even in the first
phases of the interventions.
The traditional “academic collaboration” is distinct from the “university cooperation for peace and
development” understood as a strategy of action aimed to build a more developed and peaceful
society. In fact, university cooperation needs to manage and deal with a double problem of
independence in order to face the challenges to which it is called: from one side, it has to tackle the
problem of research, didactics and operational services naturally built into the academic structure;
from the other, it has to deal with the necessity of reconciling technical-scientific interventions, that
must be tailored to the real demands of the local populations whose needs become are gradually
discovered as the project proceeds.
When we speak about university cooperation we don’t refer only to the exchange of lecturers and
researchers – which is usually the objective of traditional forms of academic collaboration – although
this kind of activity may be very useful. University cooperation implies a more general strategy
based on both analysis and action, of training and research in the field, of cooperation among the
academy and civil institutions, diplomats and international organizations, volunteers and peace
forces, in order to provide support in both the prevention and solution of crisis promoting future
development.
