Understanding complexity
Negotiation and power is an editorial project stemmed from my urge to pose questions and provide food for thought on complex power dynamics in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
These dynamics have a profound and direct impact on issues related to migrations, terrorism, radicalism and conflicts.
The aim is to stimulate the formulation of questions in applied, journalistic and academic research with a particular focus on patron-client mechanisms in managing resources and controlling the distribution of services and privileges.
With my latest book and this website I intend to address a wide range of civil, military and political interlocutors: policy and decision makers at central and national levels, scholars, journalists, think tank experts, military analysts, development practitioners, cultural heritage consultants, school teachers, humanitarian workers, representatives of non-governmental organizations, social workers, intellectuals, activists and many others.
You can be one of these actors. You may look at the contexts from your different personal background, professional perspective, and with your specific and often pre-determined objectives in mind.
For instance you would like to conduct a research and disseminate the outputs in public and restricted spheres. Or, you would like to teach to students or to train educators, military officers or many other professional categories. Perhaps, you would like to advocate for a cause or brief political and military actors. Or you would like to elaborate donors’ strategies or design humanitarian and development projects. Maybe, you would like to conduct negotiations at local and international levels or mediate among conflicting parties.
However, being an active player in the society requires a high level of awareness of the natural complexity of the contexts, considering continuity and discontinuity patterns through time and space with multi-factorial and multi-scalar approaches.
But what does this mean in practice? Both the book and this website intend to answer this by posing operational questions. Current events/news from Southern and Eastern Mediterranean territories are the main source of inspiration for these discussions.
Each event/news is presented briefly and then enriched with some questions directly connected to the event and with some reflections on why, in my opinion, is useful to pose those questions.
Being aware of complexity could stimulate us to become active players of change and contribute to a sustainable, peaceful and inclusive transformation of our societies.