Success for the conference ''The soft power of Italy'' which was held yesterday at the auditorium of the Ara Pacis in Rome. The event is promoted by the club of the same name, created with the aim of relaunching a concept introduced in the early 1990s by Joseph Nye, following the fall of the Soviet Union, to indicate the need for Western countries to aim more about persuasion than coercion.

''Soft power remains a fundamental tool both for promoting international cooperation and for promoting the national interest. But that alone is not enough. We have a war going on on European soil, a war triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine", said the European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Paolo Gentiloni, in a video conference.

"We cannot ignore -he added- the need to strengthen our common defence, and this also includes military support for Ukraine as Europe and Italy have done so far". "To overcome this serious threat to stability and for the security of our continent it is essential to combine hard and soft power. In this new geopolitical context, Italy can be the protagonist of a complete European renaissance''.