INTRODUCTION
Why the Mediterranean?

BY NOW IT SHOULD BE EVIDENT THAT A MODERNIZED PEACE strategy is urgently needed to reflect today’s reality and tomorrow’s challenges. In the first three parts of this book I presented a concrete framework for a modern peace built on the four pillars of participatory peace and glocalization, peace ecology, peacebuilding, and creative diplomacy. We have looked at examples that demonstrate some of these ideas in action and have explored ways of integrating the four pillars into the modern peace process.

Now it’s time to put these theories into practice. This final section presents an in-depth case study of modernized peacemaking in the Mediterranean Basin, a Pax Mediterraneo. After an introduction to the region, I offer a vision for peace built on the four pillars of modern peace. Particularly useful for practitioners in the field of peace and conflict studies, the Pax Mediterraneo proposes revolutionary but attainable measures for achieving lasting peace in the Mediterranean area.

Why the Mediterranean? For one, it is a highly visible region with a history of the birth of civilizations and complicated conflicts. In addition, the region continues to struggle with issues of war and peace, poverty and prosperity, immigration, and the region’s relationship to the global order.

It also is the region with which I have the most direct experience, both in the peace and conflict arena and in issues of immigration and socioeconomic development. The Peres Center for Peace is currently involved in a project that aims to bring Mediterranean countries together in regional cooperation and peaceful development. The Pax Mediterraneo I offer in this book was first presented 156 through the Peres Center in the context of the Leo Savir Foundation for a Mediterranean Vision 2020, and it has been expanded and updated here for widespread dissemination. Because the Peres Center has already begun implementing peace activities in the Mediterranean, I can speak with confidence about the immense potential for success.

Finally, I have chosen the Mediterranean as the subject of this extended case study because it is becoming the region whose destiny is most likely to influence peace on a global scale. As both a hotbed for Islamic terrorism affecting the West and a region that espouses economic progress, the Mediterranean represents a crucial intersection between the hostilities of the past and hopes for the future. Its ties with the United States, the European Union, the Middle East, and North Africa make it uniquely suited to affect peace beyond its boundaries.

My greatest hope for this Pax Mediterraneo is that it will move from the page to reality. The recommendations put forward here are not beyond the realm of possibility. Rather, they represent the steps we absolutely must take in the direction of modern peace, not only in the Mediterranean region but also in conflict regions worldwide. Although exact activities must be tailored to each region’s situation, the model of the Pax Mediterraneo can and should be duplicated for peacemaking efforts across the globe.