Proceedings of summer school 2008 & 2009 Milano Italy. Principle and advanced methods in applied sciences. Ediz. italiana

After the invasion of Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the new Iraqi government had to face numerous problems and difficult challenges in order to set in motion a realistic and credible program for internal stabilisation, national reconciliation, and institutional and socioeconomic reconstruction. Irrespective of their differing political positions, the international community as a whole have been aware of the difficult nature of this task, and of the importance of supporting the current phase of transition. Italy has been actively involved in supporting the – new Iraq – from all standpoints – from the military to the political-institutional, to the economic, social and cultural spheres. In this context, the Landau Network – Centro Volta (LNCV) of Como (Italy) tried to provoke reflections on the role which the various actors of the international community may play in the stabilisation and rebirth of Iraq – international organisations, donor nations, neighbouring states – and in the upgrading of the Iraqi scientific-technological sector. In more concrete terms, and with a view to feasibility and projects which the LNCV always places in the foreground, the centre started – together with the Iraqi Academy of Science and Ministry of Education – a program for identifying the principal requirements of the technological and scientific apparatus and for updating Iraq’s technological structures and re-training the country’s scholars and scientists. Such a program, if well-aimed, could also facilitate the process of pacification rather than fragmentation of the various ethnicreligious component in Iraq and, especially, institution-building and capacity-building activities and aid to the Iraqi administration in rebuilding and re-launching the country’s technological and scientific structures.