Our dear friend and colleague, Aldo Matteucci, passed away in October 2024. Aldo was a diplomat and thought leader renowned for his critical insight, deep empathy, and unwavering commitment to understanding the complexities of our world. His legacy endures through his writing, which addressed the intricate challenges of diplomacy, economics, and global sustainability with both clarity and compassion.
For those wishing to explore Aldo’s insights further, please visit Ask Aldo, a dedicated page that preserves his reflections and wisdom on today’s most pressing issues.
Biography
Mr Aldo Matteucci graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) in Agriculture, and from Berkeley in Agricultural Economics. He spent three years in East Africa conducting research on land use, then worked in Maryland on rural development. In 1977, he joined the Swiss Federal Office of Economic Affairs. He served as deputy director of the EUREKA Secretariat in Brussels, and from 1994 to 2000, as deputy secretary general of EFTA. He took early retirement after leaving EFTA. He remained a committed contrarian.
The writing of Aldo Matteucci
Aldo Matteucci was a man of deep intellect, wide-ranging interests, and unmistakable warmth. His insights illuminated some of the world’s most complex challenges, from diplomacy and governance to economics and environmental sustainability. Throughout his work, Aldo emphasised that ideas – whether related to human behaviour, technology, or art – have the power to shape our reality.
What made Aldo’s writing particularly important was his ability to bridge disciplines like diplomacy, economics, environmental issues, and art. He not only offered sharp analysis but also connected these ideas with humanity’s future, showing how systems interact to impact real lives. His reflections encouraged action grounded in reason, logic, and empathy.
Whether addressing global inequality or advocating for collective action on environmental crises, his work was always rooted in a profound concern for our shared future. He connected fields that are often kept separate, merging art with analysis and poetry with diplomacy, building intellectual bridges between disciplines.
Today, when the world faces unprecedented global challenges, thinkers like Aldo are more necessary than ever – those who not only champion reason and logic but also act with compassion for humanity. His unique ability to blend rigorous thought with empathy remains an enduring example for us all.
The diplomatic ‘context specialist’ – an impossible ‘dream job’
20 May 2011
When I was involved in free trade agreement negotiations we would land, one afternoon, in the potential partner country, and begin the “exploratory talks” at once. I still remember driving into then war-scarred Be...
Complexity and diplomacy
08 September 2011
I know, Jovan has never forgiven me for this quip: “Diplomacy is where there are no rules” – yet there is more than a grain of truth inthis, and Pete's question about “complexity and diplomacy” allows me to ...
Notes from the barren shoals of international relations ‘theory’
06 February 2012
In the early 80’s, a few wine producers sold poisoned plonk to the public. People died. Why would producers deliberately kill off their customers - a new way of achieving “market share”? No. The wine was never i...
Copycat China
16 February 2012
YU Huan’s latest work[1] consists of two parts. The first five “words” with which he characterises China, recall his growing up in small town China (“they don’t even have bicycles there! - scoffed his mother...
Wisdom is what’s lost in translation – or – A story from the land of false friends
20 February 2012
In a recent blog[1]I commented on an op-ed by Mr. LI in the NYT. I sent the op-ed to an acquaintance of mine in Shanghai, asking whether he knew the author. I also remarked on what I perceived as provocative, even pol...
Uses and abuses of conspiracy theory
26 March 2012
When too many unknowns chase too few equations, one encounters the ‘over-determination problem’: too many possible explanations for the same phenomenon. There is no objective way to choose among them. Conspiracy t...
Is there a ‘public interest’?
13 April 2012
Jovan has asked me to reflect on how to determine the “public interest”. As a lazy skeptic I’ve shied away from the subject. It is at the crossroads of epistemology, chaos theory, political science, and consciou...
When in doubt – scare
We all dream, like Alexander, of cutting the Gordian knot. We are all so in thrall of the story that we forget the basic fact: the knot tied something or the other together. Having cut rather than unwound the rope, th...
Putting planning on its head
05 May 2012
I’m no friend of “top down” planning and have often chided anyone believing that this can be done meaningfully. Reality is messy, is my jaundiced view, and there are too many factors impinging on it: seeking out...
Is outcome a good measure of performance?
06 May 2012
ChatGPT has sparked a debate about the roles of human and machine intelligence in writing and other creative activities. In the Aldo and AI project, we compare texts written by artificial intelligence to those written...
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Jean-Michel Monod