AESI (European Association of International Studies) is a cultural association, which has its main purpose in the promotion of human rights within the framework of international politics and co-operation. AESI intends to develop, through its study activities, vocational courses and international study programmes, a real culture of co-operation among people of different nations fully respecting human dignity and personal identity. AESI first refers to young people who are about to undertake the diplomatic career or a career in international institutions and organisations. After ten years of activities, more than 2000 students with different university backgrounds have already attended the vocational course that AESI organises each year in Rome in co-operation with the Council for Diplomatic Studies and under the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Commission and the United Nations. Many of our students have already become diplomats or they are committed in the international environment. During our conferences we have been addressed by over fifty high-level diplomats, distinguished representatives of international organisations (i.e. United Nations, European Parliament, European Commission) and academics.
AESI regularly organises seminars, courses and conferences on world crisis issues, underdevelopment problems, history of treaties and international relations. Particular attention is dedicated to the study activities on preventive diplomacy and humanitarian co-operation organised together with the Diplomatic Institute of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. AESI seminars are organised in partnership with the European Parliament Office for Italy and the Permanent Mission of the European Commission for Italy. Working with this latter, AESI could publish in 2003 a special booklet on the future of the European Union and its Constitutional Charter. AESI also organises and promotes international co-operation programmes and humanitarian aid programmes with young university students of different nationalities. Such activities were run first in the Baltic region, where they could be planned thanks to the co-operation with the University of Tallinn (Estonia), a partnership that allowed AESI to run a “Programme of University Co-operation for the Russian-Estonian social integration” in 1996 and in 1997. During 1999 a “Programme of Humanitarian Assistance for Political Refugees from Kosovo” was organised at the airport of Bari “Palese” and had the patronage and the assistance of the Italian Ministry of Defence and of the Prefecture of Bari. In May 2000 an AESI delegation took part in the International Workshop organised in Sarajevo by the United Nations, the University of Sarajevo and the University of Rome “La Sapienza” on “the Role of Universities in Humanitarian assistance and Peace process of South Eastern Europe”.
In July 2001 AESI gave its contribution to the organisations of the “First University Summer School for Co-operation and Humanitarian Affairs in South-Eastern Europe” run by the Italian Peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, the United Nations and the University of Sarajevo. A “European University Summer School” was organised in July 2002 in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Mostar thanks to the shared synergies of AESI, of the Italian Peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, of the United Nations and of the young students and graduates from the most important universities of Italy and the United Kingdom, including Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. During July 2003 AESI and the RUI Foundation organised a “European University Summer School in Lebanon”, co-operating with the Italian Embassy and the Institute for Italian Culture in Beirut, the United Nations, the European Commission Representative in Lebanon and the UNIFIL Peace forces. In May 2005 a European University Workshop was organized by AESI in cooperation with the RUI Foundation and the Regional United Nations Information Centre (RUNIC). This event took place in Brussels. Seminars lasted for a week and were hosted in several prestigious locations such as the Regional United Nations Information Centre (RUNIC), the Permanent Mission of Italy to the European Union in Brussels, the Offices of the European Parliament and the College of Europe in Bruges.
AESI is a non-profit association and is independent from political parties and any kind of political movement.