Maurizio Giuliano (born 1975) is an Italian-British United Nations official, traveller, author and journalist. As of 2004 he was, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the youngest person to have visited all sovereign nations of the world (aged 28 years and 361 days).Maurizio Giuliano: A Modern Day Marco Polo , World Atlas, 20 April 2016"The Best Travelled - UN Master List" , The Best Travelled Retrieved 22 March 2016 He has worked for various international organizations in the field of media relations.
Personal life and education
Giuliano is the son of a lawyer father and a housewife mother. He has lived in Cuba, Chile and Indonesia.
After completing high school in Milan and in Manchester, he earned a degree from the University of Oxford in 1996, Maurizio Giuliano, El Caso CEA: Intelectuales e Inquisidores en Cuba (back cover), Ediciones Universal, 1998, studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at University College,New Role at United Nations, University College News, 2019 specialising in Latin America and eastern Europe. While at Oxford, he was a member of the Oxford University L'Chaim Society.Maurizio Giuliano He also earned a master's degree from the University of Cambridge in 1997.
As of 1998, he was a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CESOC) in Santiago, Chile.
Writings
Academic work on Cuba
He authored two books and some academic articles on Cuban politics, focusing, among other things, on the US embargo, which he claimed (in the book "La Transición Cubana y el "Bloqueo" Norteamericano" and other works) has a strong counter-productive effect, in supporting the continuation of Cuba's regime. In the book and other writings, Giuliano staunchly contested the view that an end to the Castro regime would be near,Maurizio Giuliano, Scripting a Succession, The New York Times, 14 June 1995 and expressed the view that any transition would be slow and gradual.
In an article published in the British academic journal Democratization in 1998, he focused in particular on how the US embargo against Cuba helps create "empathy" by third parties towards Cuba, which is then domestically perceived as support towards Cuba's regime. He argued, hence, that the US Government - in addition to the embargo's direct influence on supporting Cuba's regime - indirectly inhibits potentially constructive pressures towards change, insofar as third countries, foreign non-governmental organizations and prominent individuals lend support to Cuba's resistance to the US embargo, and this offsets external pressures to democratize, thereby allowing the Cuban regime to convert such "empathy" into a source of legitimacy at home.Maurizio Giuliano, The United States' embargo and Cuba's foreign relations: missed opportunities for democratization, Democratization, Vol. 5, Issue 3, Autumn 1998
Purge of Havana's Centre for American Studies (CEA)
His scholarly work on internal Cuban politics, notably on the 1996 purge of Havana's Centre for American Studies (CEA) (contained in the book "El Caso CEA" published in 1998), has been the object of academic reviews, as it exposed the internal conflicts between Cuba's political apparatus and the country's intelligentsia, previously unknown. Pablo Alfonso, Cuba hizo purga contra académicos , El Nuevo Herald, 8 May 1998 Alejandro Lorenzo, Presentan obra de purga académica , El Nuevo Herald, 27 May 1998Joel Edelstein (University of Colorado), The Centro de Estudios sobre América: An Account of a Regrettable Loss (review of El Caso CEA), Latin American Perspectives, Issue 125, Vol. 29, No. 4, July 2002, page 80 According to some reviews the book, a work of investigative journalism complemented by academic analysis, dealt a strong blow to hard-liners within the regime Carlos Ruíz, Cabellero reincide , Venezuela Analítica, 6 August 2001 Carlos Alberto Montaner, El cadáver inquieto, El Nuevo Herald, 7 June 1998 by exposing for the first time the internal conflicts between Cuba's apparatus and its intelligentsia.Peter Johnson (Princeton University), Review of ¿ Intelectuales vs. Revolución ? El caso del Centro de Estudios sobre América, Johns Hopkins University, 2001 In 2001 Cuban exiled scholars Alberto Álvarez and Gerardo González, who were among those purged from the CEA, wrote the book "¿ Intelectuales vs. Revolución ? El caso del Centro de Estudios sobre América", which strongly built upon Giuliano's book to offer further insights on relations between Cuba's political apparatus and the country's intellectuals. Along with these two scholars and Giuliano, Cuban sociologist Haroldo Dilla Alfonso expressed the view that the purge mechanisms described in Giuliano's book have been a key pillar for the regime's ability to prevent the rise of reformers,Haroldo Dilla Alfonso, The Rise and Fall of a Cuban Think Tank, Havana Times, 27 March 2011 Haroldo Dilla Alfonso, "¿Qué pasó con el Centro de Estudios sobre América?", Cuba Encuentro, 24 March 2011 and that such dynamics remain in place as late as 2016. Julio Aleaga Pesant, Cuando le quebraron el corazón al CEA, Primavera Digital en Cuba, 16 March 2016
Journalism
Besides work on Cuba, other countries Giuliano covered in his journalistic work include East Timor Maurizio Giuliano, Timor Est, dove nessuno ride , Popoli, May 1999 and Myanmar (Burma).Journalist detained in Burma, photographs of Aung san Suu Kyi confiscated , IFEX, August 2000Burma expels Italian reporter for "illegal reporting" , TV Myanmar, 18 August 1998 In 1993 he worked for the Austrian weekly magazine Profil, for which he interviewed Mikhail Gorbachev, who expressed criticism at the reforms carried out by Russian president Boris Yeltsin: when Yeltsin called a referendum for 25 April 1993 in an attempt to achieve even greater powers as president, Gorbachev told Giuliano that he would not vote and instead advocated for new presidential elections.Maurizio Giuliano, Müssen schnell wählen, Profil (Austria) (nr. 19, page 61), 10 May 1993
In 2000, he visited North Korea and published an essay about his visit, essentially describing his tour around the country as a mise en scène by the North Korean authorities.North Korea Under the Shroud , Life and Human Rights in North Korea, Autumn 2000, Vol. 17, page 3
In his journalistic work, he reportedly ran into problems with the authorities of at least two countries. On 16 August 1998 he was denied entry to Myanmar after making contact with the National League for Democracy and meeting its leader Aung San Suu Kyi,Italian journalist turned away, AFP, 17 August 1998Gary Thomas, Burma has deported an Italian journalist, Voice of America, 17 August 1998Second journalist ousted, The Irrawaddy, September 1998 with Myanmar authorities accusing him of falsely claiming to be a touristItalian reporter with false document expelled, New Light of Myanmar, 17 August 2008 and of "illegally gathering news",Maung Hmat Kyauk, International Relations, New Light of Myanmar, 25 August 1998Myanmar expels Italian reporter , Associated Press, 19 August 1998 which prompted condemnations by organizations such as the International Federation of Journalists and Reporters without Borders; Les journalistes dans le collimateur des généraux birmans, Libération, 19 August 1998 only in 2013 Giuliano managed to return to Myanmar and also meet Suu Kyi.James Mackay, Aung San Suu Kyi at the National League for Democracy Headquarters in Rangoon , Enigma Images, January 2013 While on 30 October 2002, he was reportedly detained and manhandled by Israeli authorities while crossing the Allenby Bridge, which also prompted condemnation by Reporters without Borders.Six journalists arrested , Annual Report 2002, Reporters sans Frontières, 2002 Giuliano however describes his worst authorities-related odyssey as he was travelling in 2003 around the South Pacific, where authorities in New Zealand and some South Pacific islands reportedly caused serious hindrance to his movements for the simple fact that he appeared to be suspicious because of his strange travel patterns.
Giuliano's writings have also included lighter topics. During his time in Kabul, for example, he wrote restaurant reviews for a local English-language magazine.Introduction , Afghan Scene (magazine), Issue 11, May 2005, page 3
Political advocacy
In the early 2000s, Giuliano was a consultant for the Italian Senate's Committee on Human Rights.University College Record 2003, University College, Oxford, 2003 At that time, some his writings were intended to influence the positions of the Italian Government on certain human rights issues, as was the case with material that he wrote on North Korea.Activity Report , Life and Human Rights in North Korea, Spring 2000, Vol. 15, page 46
Development career
In 2004, Giuliano worked for the International Organization for Migration in the elections for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, where he advocated for turnout by potential voters in spite of precarious security conditions.Pakistan: IOM busy with Afghan voter education campaign, IRIN, 29 September 2004Afghanistan - Pakistan: Insecurity hampered voter registration in North and South Waziristan, IRIN, 7 October 2004Registration of Afghan voters completed, Dawn, 5 October 2004 And in 2005 he worked in Afghanistan for the United Nations Development Programme's justice division which endeavoured to reform the country's legal system.Attorney-General's Office one step closer to delivering justice for narcotics-related crime (press release), UNDP, 14 May 2005Afghan Law Students Score High in Washington DC (press release), UNDP, 4 April 2005 In both cases, he was working in the field of communications with the media.