Abstract
The Mediterranean has rarely suffered from a shortage of ambition where sustainability is concerned. Regional strategies, national plans and institutional declarations now converge on a common vocabulary of resilience, decarbonisation and inclusion, and the basin has become one of the most intensively studied settings in which the social, environmental and economic dimensions of development are known to collide. What the region more often lacks is the connective apparatus through which stated ambition becomes measurable outcome. Environmental exposure, dependence on seasonal tourism, uneven economic geography, an incomplete digital transition, ageing infrastructure and educational systems under strain do not operate as separate problems to be solved in sequence. They interact, and their interaction decides whether the capacities already present in the region can be turned to durable public and economic use.
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