CIVIL SERVICE AT ARCHIVIO DISARMO
Those who had chosen to do their civil service at Archivio Disarmo, the Disarmament Archive, did so guided by a deep and conscious idealism. We saw Peace as a clear horizon, almost a moral vision: a means of dialogue, reconciliation, the rejection of war. Yet on the very first day, specialist journals landed in my hands, dense with discussions of weapons systems, technical specifications, production costs and military budgets. Detailed dossiers explained how certain armaments were built, how heavily they burdened public finances, which industries produced them and how those same factories could be converted back to civilian use. It was an unexpected rejection. Not a betrayal of the ideal, but its first test.
In those Roman rooms of the institute founded in 1982, Peace was not evoked as a consoling word. It was approached as a field of study. Understanding the dynamics of conflict, analysing the economics of defence, learning about the arms trade: this was where we needed to begin. Idealism thus met realism — not to diminish it, but to strengthen it, to give it weight and credibility. It was not enough to say "no" to war; we had to know what we were talking about.
One of the figures who left a lasting mark on that experience was Senator Luigi Anderlini, one of the founders of Archivio Disarmo. Elegant in manner, amused by the naive enthusiasm of young volunteers yet with unwavering methodological rigour, Anderlini insisted on one thing: knowledge is an indispensable condition for Peace. Not a slogan, but an operational criterion. Under his guidance, the institute began building a specialised library, developed the Tabular Information System -- later known as the "IRIAD Review" -- and produced research reports that would go on to nourish public debate.
Days were spent analysing military expenditure, studying international missions, and examining arms control policies. It soon became clear that behind every conflict lie economic dynamics, strategic interests, and complex geopolitical balances. And that speaking of industrial reconversion was not an abstract utopia, but a concrete challenge.
Peace was not just a feeling, but an analytical and operational category. It required expertise. It called for dialogue with universities and institutions. It demanded international comparison. Over the years, Archivio Disarmo has collaborated with research centres in Italy and abroad, offering studies also used by public agencies, helping to train generations of students and young researchers through internships, placements and Universal Civil Service.
An essential chapter of its activity has been and is the Golden Doves for Peace journalism award, established in 1986. On those occasions, the link between information and civil responsibility became tangible. When, in 1991, Igor Man, columnists of La Stampa, received the award, it became clear that narrating conflict with competence was already a step towards freeing it from distortion.
Years later, the memory of that first impact with technical journals retains a symbolic strength. The idealist who had entered imagining Peace as an almost disembodied idea, left with the realisation that every ideal, in order to endure, must accept the test of reality. Peace, then, becomes a cultural project, a civic responsibility, a daily exercise in knowledge. A path where ideals are not abandoned, but upheld sustained by the rigour of reality. The very spirit embodied by the Campana dei Caduti.
Journalist Igor Man honoured in 1991
