Moving toward International Cooperation in the Caspian Region: Insights from the Workshop

Abstract

In addition to invited presentations and their discussions, the Workshop conducted sessions of four working groups, each with wide diversity of stakeholders’ perspectives. The common task of all working groups was to provide a brief assessment of most serious conflict-prone environmental problems in the Caspian, identify their root causes, determine the preferences of stakeholders whose participation in regime formation is instrumental to its success, and explore strategies for moving to ever higher levels of cooperation in resource sharing and environmental protection. Beyond these common objectives, the working groups were also given specific assignments, depending on the particular expertise of each group, so that more concentrated attention could be paid to such issues as the Caspian Sea’s legal status, the region’s economic and financial outlook, the roles of civil society organizations, strategies for addressing specific environmental threats, and so on.