Water Security in Central Asia and the Caucasus – A Key to Peace and Sustainable Development

Zulfiya Suleimenova
Additional contact information
Zulfiya Suleimenova: Ph.D. Candidate, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)

No WP/18/01, MPDD Working Paper Series from United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

Abstract: The dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the emergence of new states in Central Asia and the Caucasus created new political and security dynamics in these sub-regions. While the Caucasus was affected by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the threat of conflict over shared water resources continued to exist in Central Asia. More than twenty years later, the protracted conflict in the Caucasus over Nagorno-Karabakh remains unresolved and effectively overshadows water-related problems; yet water is both a very important factor in the conflict, as well as potentially one of the keys for its resolution. In Central Asia the pessimistic scenarios did not unfold; however, the region remains a ‘classic example’ of water-related conflicts in most literature. This paper aims at understanding the root causes of water conflict in Central Asia, and the role of water in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the Caucasus. It attempts to shed light at the complex nature of water security, and its importance in the states’ security and sustainable development. The paper suggests that given a cross-cutting nature of water resources, there should be a more holistic approach to understanding the drivers of water conflict in both sub-regions, and to finding the ways for its resolution. A number of recommendations have been provided that may be utilized for addressing the complexity of water conflicts and to help in establishing a mutually beneficial cooperation between states.

Keywords: water security; water conflict; water cooperation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F51 Q25 Q34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis and nep-env
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.unescap.org/publications/mpfd-working- ... eace-and-sustainable
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 400 Bad Request

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unt:wpmpdd:wp/18/01

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPDD Working Paper Series from United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Macroeconomic Policy and Development Division, ESCAP (escap-mpdd@un.org this e-mail address is bad, please contact repec@repec.org).