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    Civil Society and Reconciliation: Rethinking History to Embrace Memory – Voices from Post-war Japan, Germany, and Italy
    Astarita, C ; Ogawa, A ; Aihara, H (Walking Fish Productions, 2019)
    Lasting reconciliation with former enemies after a war is a difficult and often distressful process. Peace is not a top-down practice and the entire civil society must be involved to make it successful. Official apologies have often been perceived as a symbolic yet effective tool to promote peace and reconciliation, and international regimes are often quoted as the optimal structure to consolidate stability. This documentary untangles the connections between formal apology, regime building and peace in post-war contexts, illustrating the critical role of media and civil society in influencing collective memory and fostering reconciliation. The case studies of Japan, Germany and Italy provide empirical evidence on how media critically shaped the narration of post-Second World War events and how this interpretation is instrumentally linked to the rhetoric on peace and stability. Interviews and archival research are used to elaborate on new cognitive frameworks and paradigms to transform media, and in particular new media, into powerful tools to spread new values and perspectives, embedding civil society in a virtuous reconciliation process.
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    Corea del Nord. Ambizioni nucleari per salvare il regime
    Astarita, C (Ministero della Difesa - Italia, 2018)
    Seen from the West, the North Korean crisis appears as the inevitable outcome of the foolish attempt by an unscrupulous leader to gain power and prestige by exploiting, even irrationally, the nuclear threat. Seen from Asia, however, the Korean question is much more complex. The choice of President Moon to satisfy the moods of his North Korean interlocutor while trying to keep himself well anchored to the United States in the hope that a strategically stronger power could play a greater persuasive role in this complicated game can be understood only keeping in mind the perspective of the people he represents. The South Koreans want peace, unification and stability. South Korea is risking a lot in this negotiation. Seoul hopes not to be mocked for the umpteenth time, but if it does go the country would blame Kim, not the North Koreans. Once again, the fate of the entire Peninsula hangs on the moods and personal interests of an indecipherable leader.
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    La difficile convivenza di Cina e Russia in Asia Centrale
    Astarita, C (Ministero della Difesa - Italia, 2018)
    Xi Jinping’s New Silk Road is radically altering the political, economic and strategic balance of power in Central Asia. That China was interested in consolidating its presence in this region was very clear since 2013. However, the 19th Communist Party Congress seems to have marked a turning point in President Xi’s ambitions and long-term vision in Asia. This vision inevitably clashes with the one endorsed by Vladimir Putin. While the former Soviet republics seem to have welcome a Chinese activism that beyond bringing development and wealth to the region is also helping them to counterbalance Russian influence in their territories, a rising Chinese assertiveness may create new fears which could open multiple scenarios, from the realignment between Europe and Russia to the return of the United States to Central Asia.
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    Untangling Northeast Asia's "Abnormal Equilibrium"
    Astarita, C (Istituto Affari Internazionali, 2018)
    Northeast Asia is at a crossroads. One road leads to peace, stability and shared economic development, the other to deepening bilateral tensions, an arms race and the potential for mutual destruction. Using history and geopolitics as guideposts, one may believe that the latter road will be taken. However, a systematic overview of developments in the Korean Peninsula over the last 12 months seems to confirm that an “abnormal equilibrium” is slowly taking shape, holding out a potential to modify intra-state relations in the area.
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    A New Frontier of West-China Competition: Academia and International Education
    Astarita, C (Istituto Affari Internazionali, 2018)
    Growing concern about China’s rising status is spilling into the realm of international education, as allegations of Chinese influence and spying operations in Western universities gathers currency in certain states. Conversely, in China, authorities are moving to strengthen central oversight of the national education system, consolidating the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its leader Xi Jinping, while closing down partnerships with foreign institutes and centres of learning. Both trends are worrying in their own right and seem to signal that international education is becoming a new frontier in the evolving East-West tensions surrounding China’s rise.