XXII
Introductory Note
as, what is sometimes described as, a “Track 2” process in international
negotiations.
This second Study in the MEPIELAN Series is entitled “Contribu-
tions to International Environmental Negotiation in the Mediterranean
Context”. It primarily comprises a collection of the papers and simula-
tion exercises that were originally designed for and used at the first of
the MEPIELAN international negotiation seminars. The co-editors believe
that the provocative ideas raised in the Seminar presentations and in the
exercises should be more broadly available in the community as a basis
for further reflection, critique and development. It is also believed that
this collection offers an interdisciplinary basis for developing future sem-
inars, combining practice and theory in a holistic manner, and simultane-
ously providing an opportunity for environmental negotiators to consider
strategic responses to challenges that they face. Although the focus of this
Study and of the Seminar is “Mediterranean” it is understood that, much
as has been in the case with the regional seas programmes, the Mediter-
ranean experience will provide a useful comparative experience for other
regions.
The Seminar, held in Glyfada, Greece in 2002, was the first strategic
step by MEPIELAN in a conscious process of engagement between aca-
demics, researchers, emerging scholars and future negotiators and those
whose daily work it is to negotiate environmental agreements in the re-
gion. The underlying objective in the first Seminar was to contextualize
the process of negotiation within larger system-wide trends such as the
emergence of conceptual frameworks such as ocean and/or environmen-
tal governance, the impact of changing institutional responsibilities and
leadership at international and national levels and the growth of region-
alism and concerns about the effectiveness of the existing regimes. The
overarching socio-economic and political context provided by the growth
of the European Union (EU) and the
de facto
creation of a north/south
divide through EU membership and its impact on the Mediterranean ne-
gotiation, as well as the rapidly escalating military and security tensions
in the region, also form part of the subject matter that was explored in the
Seminar. The picture has changed since the Seminar only with respect to
