The role of the Italic community as a new agent of glocal development in the post-pandemic era

The pandemic and the digital revolution are changing the global geopolitical landscape. The dispersion of power linked to the new digital decision-making centers is accompanied by a fragmentation of the traditional system of power in the international geopolitical arena. In this scenario, it is difficult to identify who is in charge of sovereignty and governance. A glocal perspective would suggest continuing to look at States, but also at local political entities, such as cities, and super-national cultural identities, such as global civilizations. It is a solution that could allow Italy, and other countries, to avoid what John Agnew called the territorial trap that would push the world system into giving national answers to the growing number of global challenges. In the post-pandemic phase, Italy will face its most important test of resilience since the Second World War. This paper intends to investigate whether and in what terms the Italian State will be able to recognize and make use of the soft power of the Italic community and civilization as a new agent of glocal development. The digital revolution accelerated by the pandemic could in fact transform the digital space into the ideal place for the recognition and strengthening of the global network of Italics around the world. Italic is not simply a synonym for Italian. Italic is someone who appreciates and recognizes the charm of Italy. The Italic does not necessarily have a passport or an Italian bloodline;he can live in Italy or anywhere else. The way of life and the commonality of values is the glue that unites Italics and this can become a soft power of Italy, strengthening the Italian State internally and externally. We refer to that mix of culture, taste, style, quality craftsmanship, fashion, design, high-value manufacturing, electronics, robotics, avant-garde entrepreneurship and gastronomic excellence that gives life to a refined art of living well.

Geopolitics of Covid-19: global challenge at national borders

The current Covid-19 pandemic seems to confirm that glocalism, a phenomenon that theorizes a close correlation between the sphere of the local and the global, is now the new normal. The rapid spread of the virus seems to show how the international order, focused on borders and political-territorial spheres, is currently struggling to manage complex problems caused by factors such as innovation and the mobility of people, goods and information. In a short space of time, the virus spread quickly from the market in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan to the rest of the world, thanks to the infection being spread from person to person. To this global change, states have responded with national solutions. The perception that the risks caused by the spread of the virus could undermine national security and sovereignty has led most states to isolate themselves by refraining from multilateral cooperation. At the peak of the pandemic, contrary to the instructions of the World Health Organization, more than one hundred and thirty countries closed borders or imposed strict border controls and banned from entering a selection of citizens from the outbreak areas of contagion. These "cures" are often worse than the disease. The international health emergency seems to have accelerated the beginning of a new glocal era, based on a close correlation between the local and the global sphere. This article aims to analyse the causes, consequences and possible geopolitical scenarios of this phenomenon.