Books by Carola Cerami
C. Cerami (2019), Turchia e Guerra Fredda. Il «cambio di metodo» e la transizione degli anni Settanta (1973-1980), Mondadori Università, Milano, pp. 208, ISBN: 9788861846623
Tra il 1973 e il 1980, negli anni della distensione e successivamente del rilancio della «seconda... more Tra il 1973 e il 1980, negli anni della distensione e successivamente del rilancio della «seconda guerra fredda», la politica estera turca visse un importante processo di trasformazione, un «cambio di metodo», destinato a lasciare tracce profonde nell'approccio turco alle relazioni internazionali dei decenni successivi. Comprendere le origini e le peculiarità di questo processo significa ripensare il ruolo della Turchia nello scenario internazionale degli anni Settanta, rileggendo, al tempo stesso, una fase cruciale della Guerra fredda da una prospettiva regionale, ancora parzialmente inesplorata. Il volume propone un percorso narrativo a più livelli e ha per oggetto l'analisi delle scelte di politica estera della Turchia negli anni Settanta. Le conseguenze di queste scelte sono visibili ancora oggi nella ricerca costante di una politica di interesse nazionale oscillante fra l'appartenenza all'alleanza occidentale e l'ambizione ad una maggiore indipendenza.
Cerami C. (2005), Guida alle fonti di documentazione europea in rete, Edizioni ETS, Pisa, pp. 120, ISBN: 88-467-1168-8. (trad. Guide to online EU documentation sources)
Article by Carola Cerami
NAD - Nuovi Autoritarismi e Democrazie: Diritto, Istituzioni e Società, Vol.6, N.2, 2024
The violent attack by Hamas on Israel on 7 October 2023, and the subsequent dramatic... more The violent attack by Hamas on Israel on 7 October 2023, and the subsequent dramatic counteroffensive by Israeli troops in Gaza and Lebanon, have led to a growing wave of protests and counter-protests that started in the United States and then spread globally. The current wave of pro-Palestine student protests has placed universities at the centre of a complex debate that seems to have opened a “Pandora’s box” on thorny and multifaceted issues. This article aims to understand the origins, meaning, and consequences of the student movement and to explore the role of universities in the context of a major political crisis like the war in Gaza.
Il Politico, 261(2), 100–119., 2024
L’attuale governo italiano ha rilanciato la politica estera dell’Italia verso il Mediterraneo e l... more L’attuale governo italiano ha rilanciato la politica estera dell’Italia verso il Mediterraneo e l’Africa, e il cosiddetto “Piano Mattei” fa parte di questa tendenza. L’obiettivo principale di questo saggio è quello di esplorare storicamente e riflettere sul significato originale del “Piano Mattei” e sull’evoluzione del ruolo dell’ENI a partire dagli anni ‘50, nello scenario della politica estera italiana verso il Mediterraneo e il continente africano. La storia può aiutarci a valutare il percorso del governo italiano oggi verso un nuovo Piano Mattei? È convincente - da un punto di vista storico - reinventare il “Piano Mattei” in uno scenario storico, geopolitico e culturale profondamente cambiato? L’articolo è diviso in due parti. La prima parte esplora il ruolo di Enrico Mattei e il significato originario del “Piano Mattei” negli anni Cinquanta e Sessanta, nell’Italia del “miracolo economico” e del “neo-atlantismo” e nello scenario internazionale della Guerra fredda e della decolonizzazione. La seconda parte analizza il significato attuale del “Piano Mattei” nella politica estera italiana verso il Mediterraneo e l’Africa, con un focus su energia, sicurezza e geopolitica.
Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 2024
The Eastern Mediterranean is undergoing rapid transformations, increasing its importance in curre... more The Eastern Mediterranean is undergoing rapid transformations, increasing its importance in current international affairs for four main reasons: i) the energy dimension and the discovery of natural gas fields; ii) the new geopolitical dynamics testing the balance of power between states; iii) the refugee crisis; and iv) the renewed presence of external great powers. In this framework, the article explores the role of Italy and Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean region with a focus on energy issues and the refugee crisis. It also analyses China's growing influence in this region and in Italy in the context of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the implications of these policies for the European Union.
Cerami C., Civil Resistance from the End of the Cold War to the 21 st Century: A Historical Perspective, in Nuovi Autoritarismi e Democrazie: Diritto, Istituzioni e Società (NAD), Vol. 4, N. 2, 2022, pp. 27-52, ISSN 2612-6672, Dec 23, 2022
Civil resistance made a significant contribution to the largely peaceful end of the Cold War and ... more Civil resistance made a significant contribution to the largely peaceful end of the Cold War and has become an increasingly important factor of post-Cold War international politics. This essay proposes a historical reflection of civil resistance from the end of the Cold War to the present, in relation to some crucial issues on the contemporary international scenario. Taking 1989 as the starting point, the main aim of this study is to explore the legacy of the "Long 1989" in the evolution of civil resistance. The essay focuses on three main issues: i) the rise and decline of the post-1989 liberal cycle of civil resistance in Europe; ii) the consequences of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the emergence of a new Chinese authoritarian state capitalism; and iii) the impact of the technological and digital revolution on post-1989 civil resistance.
NAD - Nuovi Autoritarismi e Democrazie: Diritto, Istituzioni, Società, 2021
The defence of open society has been the main mission of the Central European University (CEU) si... more The defence of open society has been the main mission of the Central European University (CEU) since its creation in 1991. This article explores the history of the CEU, from the crucial years of the immediate post-Cold War until the present day. It is divided into two parts: the first part analyses the origins of the CEU, its aims and the concept of the open society as an academic mission; the second part focuses on the clash between the CEU and the Hungarian government, led by right-wing populist minister Viktor Orbán. The "CEU affair" has opened a debate about the nature of the relationship between academic freedom, open society and the rule of law in Hungary and in Europe. Reconstructing the history of the CEU offers the chance to explore the evolution of the open society ideal in Central and Eastern Europe, from the euphoria of the post-Cold War to the challenges of the 21 st century.
Nuovi Autoritarismi e Democrazie: Diritto, Istituzioni e Società (NAD), vol. 3, N.1, 2021 pp. 186-196 ISSN 2612-6672, 2021
On 20 March 2021, Turkey withdrew from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combati... more On 20 March 2021, Turkey withdrew from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence ('Istanbul Convention') with a presidential decree. President Erdoğan's decision and the way in which it was carried out has led to great discontent both within the country and on the international scenario. The main aim of this analysis is to explore the meaning, impact and aftermath of the Turkish government's decision. The article is divided into two parts: the first part analyses the scope and purposes of the Istanbul Convention, and the second part explores Turkey's increasing authoritarianism over the last decade, which offers the framework to interpret its decision to withdraw.
This article analyzes the meaning, characteristics and evolution of Turkey's ambitions and limits... more This article analyzes the meaning, characteristics and evolution of Turkey's ambitions and limits in the exercising of "soft power" within the Arab World. The article's central thesis is that Turkey's model of "soft power" derives from a "historical evolutionary process", in which the relationship between Islamism and republican secularism creates not two separate and conflicting worlds, but two symbiotic parts within the collective historical development that comprises contemporary Turkey. This process has enabled Turkey to develop a complex and changeable admixture of Islam, secularism and democracy; this "alchemy", and its future developments, are the key to the meaning of Turkish "soft power". The article will trace Turkey's projection of soft power since the AKP's accession to power in 2002. It will highlight both the AKP's potential, particularly as signaled during the first mandate, and the party's limits, which emerged in the subsequent two mandates. The article proposes that Turkey's soft power has progressively diminished as the government's initially fine balance between Islam, secularism and democracy has unraveled.
The article is divided into four parts. The first part explores the origins of the concept of soft power in the literature and the historical process that enabled Turkey to project that power toward the Arab world. The next part depicts the peculiarities of Turkish soft power as instanced during the AKP's first mandate. The third part describes the developments that made Turkey "attractive" to the Arab world and the relationship between the projection of Turkish soft power and the birth of the "Arab spring". Finally, the last part considers the Arab spring's effects on Turkish soft power. Of particular note are the limits and contradictions that have diluted Turkey's soft power credibility.
The main aim of this paper is to examine the historical process of Turkey-EC/EU relations, and to... more The main aim of this paper is to examine the historical process of Turkey-EC/EU relations, and to underline the extent to which the changes that occurred in the 70s contributed to the genesis and evolution of some of the great “unresolved questions” that characterise Turkish-European relations today. In particular the questions of “identity and evolution”, “geopolitics and strategy”, “religion” and fi nally “mutual perception”. The paper is a fi rst attempt towards a new historical reconstruction of Turkish-European relations that identifi es the 70s as an important moment of evolution and change, rather than of crisis and, as such as the key to interpretation of both the historical and current relations. Accordingly, the paper’s analysis of the 50 year history of the complex relations between Turkey and Europe underlines the importance of rethinking the 70s historiographically. In this context, the 70s are of extraordinary interest, for it is in these years that the seeds of some of
the principal transformations that have progressively changed the relations between Turkey and the EC/EU were sown.
The central aim of this essay is to highlight the role played by prominent thinkers of Central Ea... more The central aim of this essay is to highlight the role played by prominent thinkers of Central Eastern European origins, such as Ralf Dahrendorf and Ernest Gellner, in promoting and discussing liberal ideas beyond the Iron Curtain during the crucial years 1985 to 1995. In so doing, they elaborated the concept of Open Society, participated to the debate on liberalisation in Central and Eastern Europe and actively engaged in the process which finally made it possible. Accordingly, the principal objective of this work is to highlight the most significant cultural initiatives originating in Britain and promoted under the banner of the Open Society. British liberalism exercised a “power of cultural attraction”, which can be described as an example of “Soft Power”. It was a small but significant test case of the power of ideas in the process leading to the end of the Cold War.
Cerami C. (2008), “La pluralità dei rapporti fra la Turchia e la Comunità Europea. Analisi di un decennio (1973- 1983)” in Ricerche Storiche, Edizioni Polistampa, Firenze, Vol. XXXVIII, N. 3, 2008, pp. 390 - 422, ISSN: 0392-162X.
Cerami C. (2005), “Le principali risorse online per la storia dell’integrazione europea: proposte per la ricerca in rete”, in MEMORIA E RICERCA. Rivista di Storia Contemporanea, Franco Angeli, n.19, 2005, pp. 193 -199, ISSN: 1127- 0195.
Book chapters by Carola Cerami
Cerami C. (2015), “Il ‘fronte dimenticato’. La Grande Guerra e la fine dell’Impero Ottomano”, in Pombeni P. (a cura di), I cinque anni che sconvolsero il mondo. La Prima Guerra mondiale 1914-1918, Edizioni Studium, Roma, pp. 119-131, ISBN 978-88-382-4314-1.
Cerami C. (2013), “Turchia. Spazi pubblici e società aperta” in A. Cantaro (ed.), Dove vanno le primavere arabe?, Edizioni Ediesse, Roma, 2013, pp.163-173, ISBN: 978 - 88-230-1786-3
Cerami C. (2012), “La regione del Mar Nero: storia e geopolitica” in Di Nolfo E. – Gerlini M. (ed.), Il Mediterraneo attuale fra storia e politica, Marsilio Editori, Venezia, pp. 368, 1°ed., 2012, ISBN: 978-88-230-1786-3
Cerami C. (2007), “La Turchia e la Comunità Europea negli anni ’70: come superare il modello interpretativo dell’“avvicinamento-allontanamento” in A.Varsori (a cura di), Alle origini del presente. L’Europa Occidentale nella crisi degli anni Settanta, Franco Angeli, Milano, 2007, pp. 95 – 113
Cerami C. (2019), In difesa della “società aperta”: la Central European University (CEU), in Mente Politica, 28.08.2019
Mente Politica, 2019
Cerami C. (2015), I rischi della crisi turca nel caos mediorientale, Mente Politica, 03.09.2015
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Books by Carola Cerami
Article by Carola Cerami
The article is divided into four parts. The first part explores the origins of the concept of soft power in the literature and the historical process that enabled Turkey to project that power toward the Arab world. The next part depicts the peculiarities of Turkish soft power as instanced during the AKP's first mandate. The third part describes the developments that made Turkey "attractive" to the Arab world and the relationship between the projection of Turkish soft power and the birth of the "Arab spring". Finally, the last part considers the Arab spring's effects on Turkish soft power. Of particular note are the limits and contradictions that have diluted Turkey's soft power credibility.
the principal transformations that have progressively changed the relations between Turkey and the EC/EU were sown.
Book chapters by Carola Cerami
Commentary by Carola Cerami