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Food security is one of the most complex problems that the world is facing today. This paper discusses the role of international trade in food security and analyzes whether there is a real option to promote or attract land investments, alongside domestic production and international trade for the nations touched by food insecurity. Considering food security as a common purpose for all nations, independently of their level of development or political ideologies, the research concludes that serious cooperation within international agricultural trade negotiations represents the main step towards resolving the most important world challenges such as achieving global food security alongside "Green Growth". International trade is connected with economic development: free trade brings on medium and long term economic growth. Fighting against poverty requires efficient economic policies and, due to the high degree of economic integration reached by the international economy, this is possible only if governments cooperate with each other and with international organizations, avoiding protectionism.

After the beginning of the experience of the center-left government in the early sixties, Italy proposes an independent and original foreign policy, consistent with its position in the Mediterranean, across the border between East and West. The preferred partner within the Warsaw Pact is Romania, considered the vanguard of a political process of internal liberalization and of political emancipation of Eastern Europe from Soviet-communism. So far, the limited historiography on the Italo-Romanian relationships has taken into account almost exclusively the economic and trade agreements. This paper, on the basis of largely unpublished documentation at the Senato della Repubblica and at the Central State's Archive in Italy, analyzes instead the main international issues of the meetings between Bucharest and Rome, namely the Détente, the Sino-Soviet conflict, the peace building in the South-East Asia, the Middle-East, the CSCE. The unpublished diary of statesman Amintore Fanfani, Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1965 to 1968, reveals how the Italian ruling class has a substantial confidence in Ion Gheorghe Maurer and Corneliu Mănescu and high expectations around an alleged non-alignment of Romania. On the other hand, the correspondence from the Italian Embassy in Bucharest for Aldo Moro (Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1969 to 1972 and from 1973 to 1974), describes the violent and authoritarian temper of the regime established by Ceauşescu in his country. In any case the Italian strategy seems then to reappraise the special partnership with Romania, in favor of a multilateral approach to the problem of Détente within the continental conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

A review essay on a book by the Minister Foreign Affairs, Commission for the Publication of Diplomatic Documents, I Documenti Diplomatici Italiani, Ottavo Serie 1935-1939 ([Italian Diplomatic Documents, Series VIII 1935-1939. Vols. IX and X] Rome: Instit Poligrafico & Zecca Stato, 2003).

The Nordic Region offers innovative interpretative approaches and models to overcome the "dilemma between security and prosperity". In this region, integration and fragmentation have been well-balanced and grounded on diversity. The first aim of this article is to explain the reasons for peace in Nordic Europe, a task sometimes more difficult than explaining wars. Historical cases of pacific resolution of disputes and the possible reasons for those policies are considered. Finally, the theoretical foundations of these approaches and how they influenced the political institutions are also analyzed.