Photo: Prof. Gianni Cara, President of the University for Paece based in Rome and the cover of the new collective book of the University

Preface by the Rector Gianni Cara,  

As is known, the United Nations General Assembly, with resolution 35/55 of December 5, 1980, established the International University for Peace with the following mission: ‘To provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for Peace with the aim of promoting the spirit of understanding, toleraance and peaceful coexistence among all human beings, to stimulate cooperation between peoples and to help reduce obstacles and threats to peace and progress in the world, in line with the noble aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations’.

The university’s task is to educate for peace, engaging in teaching, research, post-graduate training and dissemination of fundamental knowledge for the full development of the human person and society through the interdisciplinary study of all issues relating to peace. The challenge that all nations and that all men and women must face is education for peace, which is the best way to save the human race, threatened by war.

The United Nations – with resolution 35/55 of 5 Decem- ber 1980 – “wanting to provide humanity with an International Institution of higher education for Peace and in order to promote the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence among all human beings” have created the International University for Peace for almost 39 years, establishing its headquarters in Costa Rica, thus rewarding this country for having abolished its armed forces, unique in the world and unilaterally, and allocating budget funds to education spared. If education is the main tool of science and technology, it must be all the more so to realize that primary right of the human person which is Peace. As regards Italy, on 6 November 2015 the governing bodies of University for Peace (UPEACE) signed with me – already responsible for Europe of the ‘World Organization for Peace’ – the memorandum of understanding with which the establishment of a delegated office in Italy was made official, destined to join the others already operating for some time, according to customary and treaty law, in the Netherlands, Japan, the Philippines, Chile and Ethiopia.

The International University for Peace – Rome was therefore identified by University for Peace Costa Rica as the body in charge of establishing the university headquarters in Rome. The Italian University was also born with the aim of providing a highly qualified and advanced training offer, such as to extend, with the related study and research activities, to Eastern and Southern Europe, the Mediterranean area, the Middle East and Equatorial and Sub-Saharan Africa.

In execution of the assignment received, a special body was set up, appropriately named “International University for Peace – Rome”; in addition, 2 offices have been established a central office in Rome and a peripheral operating office in Tunisi, in a very innovative area, which is a real business accelerator.

The idea of a circular loop of materials was first presented by economist Kenneth E. Boulding in his article “The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth” (1966); subsequently Walter Stahel and Genevieve Reday, in 1976, in a report presented to the European Commission, entitled “The Potential for Substituting Manpower for Energy”, outlined the vision of a circular economy and its impact on job creation, saving of resources and waste reduction.

Therefore, although born around the 70s of the last century, the concept of circular economy has risen to the European limelight recently and in particular since 2014, the year in which the European Commission published a Communication on the subject, hoping for the issuance of new directives. The main aspects taken into consideration concern: design and innovation at the service of a circular economy; the release of investments; the mobilization of businesses and consumers and support for small and medium-sized enterprises; the modernization of waste policy, aimed at making it a resource. In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly also adopted the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.

This work, organized within the Political Science department of my University and coordinated by Prof Franza, takes stock of the circular economy strategy at the center of the resource efficiency agenda established within the Europe 2020 strategy for a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The contribution, however, is enriched with the point of view of the policies followed in Brazil. In fact, the idea of reducing waste, reusing resources, recycling waste, began to develop in response to the crisis of the traditional model and began to appear, for many scholars of different disciplines, a potential and valid substitute for the model of linear economy and, in our opinion, must be enriched with practical experiences in order to lead to an inclusive model of development.

Ing. Prof. Gianni Cara

Authors of the book:Maryna Vahabava, Pier Paolo Poggioni, Enea Franza, Giampaolo Bassi, Aikaterini-Sotiria Argyriou, Jolanta Kubicka, Michele de Gasperis, Bruna Augusto, Marcus Brancaglione e Pedro Theodoro dos Santos

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Videoclip of the Social Protection Movement