Institute of Commercial Diplomacy and Arbitration
"Nicolae Titulescu"

Message of the Director

It is a great honour to speak before you at the opening of activities of this alternative education institution, having private economic interest, which aims at preparing for contemporary society and for the future, in the field of international relations and commercial diplomacy. This activity will take place within a climate of economic crisis that crosses the whole society. The task of the institute is to generate and transfer knowledge through democracy, collective participation and transparency. Peer solidarity, dialogue and consultation, the right to expression, the promotion and preservation of national identity and cultural values belonging to the Romanian people constitute our basic principles.

The Institute is aiming at training a “commercial diplomat”, promoting the concept of “diplomatic city manager”, providing some professional calibration in the development of the founding members and supporters of the Levantine Commission -Balkan Trade House and supporting the staff within their companies.

Our educational mission is an obligatory formative mission; and what we are trying to train through our courses and seminars, and before which we have the responsibility - also a liability towards society - is the critical spirit to become through culture subjects of law and citizens: Subjects of law who are entitled by law to rights and they bind to it, and citizens who exercise and claim these rights when these are violated on behalf of imperative or economic, political, safety emergencies. Citizens who are able to discern in public speeches in terms of public interest and private manipulation, compliance with the law and corruption, rights limitation or oppression.
Between knowledge and information there is a subtle difference. Unrestricted access to information easily creates confusion between know and inform. What we want to know is at hand, we find out instantly what's happening at the other end of the world, and when we launch our research, we find online database accessible at a click away. Google takes the place of knowledge, rating and money replace dignity, to do what you want and to not be responsible for anything you do replace emancipation. All this superabundant information is offered already digested; unlike information, which is kept quick and ephemeral, knowledge has nowadays a major defect: it takes time, but also a sustainable virtue: durability.

The other major effect of knowledge is emancipation. I consider it an individual action by which we get free from truths already received and accepted or oppressive tutelage generating our growth and surrounding us day after day. To be free has the meaning of the formation of a critical consciousness that does not depend on manipulative forms of authority, whether traditional (family), modern or postmodern (media, politicians, ephemeral fashionable celebrities). To get emancipated means then to look with suspicion and to get detached from dominant figures in society of immediate success, success in business, politics, media, university. To get emancipated means to be able to take those major decisions that give a meaning to individual existence, to be responsible for those decisions and to resist to those offers that promise to know better than us the meaning of our life. Therefore, the Institute will promote learner-centred education by inducing proactive attitude and participation. Learners opinion, individually or expressed by representatives, or by surveys, will be a self-control, evaluation and improvement method of the Institute activity.

I conclude by saying that the motto of the institute is to be prepared to be the winner of the economic environment. God gives grace, but it depends on you alone to undertake the responsibility and sacrifices involved in the service of people.

General de flotila(r) prof. univ. dr. Gavrila Jan