Prof. Najam Lectures on Negotiations and Sustainable Development in the Netherlands

Prof. Adil Najam, the Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and Professor of Geography, Environment and International Relations at Boston University, presented a series of lectures related to international sustainable development policy and to international negotiations as part of two trainings for mid-career policy professionals and advanced graduate students held in the Netherlands.

On June 10 and June 11, 2010, Prof. Najam presented lectures on “Global Climate Change in the Context of Security and Development” and on “Developing Countries of the South in Sustainable Development Diplomacy” to participants in the Second International course on Sustainable Development Diplomacy (SDD) held in Wageningen, The Netherlands.

The two-week long executive education course on Sustainable Development Diplomacy course is jointly organized by the Wageningen University & Research Centre, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University, and the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality (LNV), in cooperation with the Sustainability Challenge Foundation (SCF), have organized a first of its kind two-week executive education course on Sustainable Development Diplomacy. The purpose of the course is to provide future leaders in the public, private or non-profit sectors, with a combination of theory and practice of sustainable development diplomacy. The course aims to teach experienced mid-career civil servants and diplomats as well as advanced Masters and PhD students.

Later on June 13 and 14, 2010, Prof. Najam presented a series of lectures on the ‘mutual gains approach’ to negotiation, and particularly to negotiation for sustainable development, as part of the SDD which was now meeting in conjunction with the 17th Annual International Programme on the Management of Sustainability (IPMS). The IPMS is held at the Woudschoten Conference Centre near Ziest, The Netherlands.

The IPMS is a 7-day executive seminar for senior officials from the public, private and non-profit sectors about strategies to meet the challenges of sustainability. The objective of the IPMS is to train participants in the techniques of multilateral dialogue to resolve the conflicts that arise in the context of implementing sustainable development. The IPMS teaches a mutual gains approach to negotiation. On the basis of role-playing exercises, lectures and discussion groups an integration of theory and practice is achieved that enables a dynamic, interactive learning process.