The Organization of Global Negotiations

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Presiding Officers

… the real task of being the Chair… includ[es] almost every kind of role, between on the one extreme being the spiritual adviser or psychologist (weeping delegates!), through being a manipulator or seducer, to the other extreme of being a dictator (Veit Koester (Chair, negotiations on the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety), in Bail et al (2002, p46)).

Introduction

Presiding officers play a central role in any global negotiation. Together with the secretariat, presiding officers have overall responsibility for the smooth conduct of the negotiations, and as such their actions shape every facet of the organization of the negotiation process. A hierarchy of presiding officers exists in the climate change regime, corresponding ...