Middle East water conflicts and directions for conflict resolution

Aaron T. Wolf

No 31, 2020 vision briefs from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: Because of water's preeminent role in survival, political conflicts over international water resources tend to be particularly contentious. The intensity of a water conflict can be exacerbated by a region's geographical, geopolitical, or hydropolitical landscape. Water conflicts are especially bitter, for example, where the climate is arid, where the riparians of regional waterways are already engaged in political confrontation, or where the population's water demand is approaching or surpassing annual supply. Each of the three major waterways of the arid and volatile Middle East the Nile, the Jordan, and the Tigris-Euphrates systems have elements of all of these exacerbating factors. Scarce water resources have already been at the heart of much of the bitter, occasionally armed, conflict endemic to the region. This brief analyzes the hydropolitics of the Middle East and the relationship between water and the peace process.

Keywords: water resources; water supply; management; conflicts; Oceania; Middle East (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:2020br:31

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