This issue’s cover features the Expo Milano 2015 because it is the kind of event that will capture worldwide public attention over the next six months until its closure at the end of October. Also because Expo opens its doors today, the first day you’ll find East No. 59 on newsstands.
The first universal exposition was organised in London in 1851 under the aegis of the Bureau International des Expositions. The intention of this appointment was to create a forum for face-to-face discussions on new developments in industry, trade and science. It was the first event in history to shift this debate from a national and international stage to a global one. This event was followed, in 1895, by the Venice Biennale, acting as a platform for the very first worldwide discussions on the visual arts, which had been extremely localised until then.
We have included a photo of the Italian prime minister because Expo should play a decisive role in consolidating his international standing. This could help answer one of the most justified criticisms levelled against him by his detractors (mainly from the obsolete left wing of his own party). Actually, Matteo Renzi is gradually establishing his international stature anyhow.
He has put his own reputation on the line to promote dialogue with Vladimir Putin, the only strategy with any reasonable chance of successfully solving the convoluted Russian-Ukrainian crisis. He has also focused the international community’s attention on the implosion underway in Libya, which could potentially cause serious security problems for southern European shores if the world keeps stalling.
We will never tire of repeating that, whatever the case, we all need “more Europe!” if we want an effective strategy to stand up to America’s withdrawal from the crises surrounding us. We need a smart Europe, as in the one that forced Poroshenko and Putin to open talks in Minsk, certainly not the Europe that still absentmindedly allows people to keep promoting Ukraine’s membership in NATO, the main political barrier to the cession of fighting in eastern Ukraine. We need a dynamic Europe, as in the one that finally stood up and supported the UN in the Rabat Process, where Libyan rivals sat at the same table for the first time, an essential condition to be able to plan any kind of peacekeeping operation in that country. A Europe which, after successfully integrating its financial markets, must now finally try to draft a road map towards a common defence policy, soon able to rely on an EU army to effectively counter the Islamic State and other emerging extremists
This issue’s cover features the Expo Milano 2015 because it is the kind of event that will capture worldwide public attention over the next six months until its closure at the end of October. Also because Expo opens its doors today, the first day you’ll find East No. 59 on newsstands.
