Thirty years after its founding, ASERI remains exactly what it set out to be: a place where students learn to interpret the world without falling into the traps of simplification or disciplinary isolation. A place where you are prepared to take responsibility, with seriousness and depth.
Over the course of these three decades, the global context has undergone multiple transformations. The post-Cold War order – with its promises of stability, interdependence and the spread of democracy – has progressively dissolved. The optimism of the 1990s has given way to a more uneasy awareness: international dynamics have become less predictable, democratic institutions more fragile than previously thought, and the relationship between politics and economics increasingly unstable, exposed to asymmetries, turmoil and systemic shocks. Yet, it is precisely in this changing scenario that the original vision of ASERI has found its most vivid relevance.
The value of a school lies, first of all, in the integrity of its method. From the beginning, ASERI has made a conscious choice: to provide its students not only with technical skills, but with an approach to understanding capable of grasping the deep connections between economic processes, political decisions and social transformations. A method that avoids rigidity and promotes critical flexibility; that connects instead of separating; that does not pretend to explain everything, but teaches us to ask the right questions. It is thanks to this approach that the School has trained over 1,800 graduates, now engaged in the most diverse professional fields: public administration, international organizations, business and civil society. What unites them is not a single career path, but a common intellectual attitude: the willingness to confront complexity, to work beyond disciplinary boundaries and to recognize that even the most technical decisions are never neutral – they are fraught with ethical implications.
In addition to the method, ASERI has always supported a high idea of training. Preparing for leadership does not mean selecting a predetermined elite, but providing each one with the tools to take responsibility in a conscious and thoughtful way. From the very beginning, the School has pursued an educational model based on rigor, attention and example – not on self-referentiality or abstraction.
This thirtieth anniversary is also an opportunity to express gratitude. To the professors and visiting professors, to the coordinators of the masters, to the tutors and staff, and above all to the students – to those who gave life to this School and brought its spirit to the world. Special thanks go to Roberto Brambilla, who accompanied the birth and growth of ASERI with dedication and care. All of them deserve the rare merit not only of commitment, but of consistency.
Looking to the future, there is comfort in knowing that the leadership of ASERI is now entrusted to Professor Damiano Palano, whose intellectual rigor and cultural sensitivity represent a promise of continuity and renewal together. The years ahead will require imagination, courage, and the ability to forge new alliances and new languages. But the foundations are already solid.
What remains, then, after thirty years? The idea of a school that takes the world seriously remains. Which does not offer easy answers, but teaches us to recognize the real problems. And that's exactly why it continues to count.