Although it is now widely recognized throughout societies around the world that humankind is straining the capacity of our planet, the responses of the many parties who need to come together to solve the myriad challenges have in general been sectoral in their approach. Yet the dangers presented by drawing successively on Earth's natural resources and exacerbating drought, water scarcity, hunger, health - indeed the viability of whol ecommunities and countries - coupled with the economic and social aspirations of the developed and developing world, clearly call for holistic vision leading to coordinated action.

In this book, eight highly experienced authors from acaemia, intergovernmental negotiation, and diplomacy each present their own perspective and assess prospects for progress. the necessity for interdisciplinarity of approach, and for partnership and altruism on an unprecedented scale for solution, and for new negotiation and arbitration frameworks, emerge as inevitalbe conclusions.