The Diplomacy of Water in the Middle East

Abstract

Middle East suffers from an abundance of issues that compound water security, including arapidly growing population, uneven economic development, limited amounts of watersupply, negative impacts of climate change and poor water management practices bothwithin and between states. The geopolitical importance of the region, and the conflicts thathave consequently resulted, aggravate the usual problems of using water in a variety ofsettings, such as the Euphrates-Tigris (ET) basin.Transboundary water politics in the ET basin is often marked with political confrontationsamong its major riparians, namely Turkey, Syria and Iraq. However, the basin also hostswater diplomacy governance structures. Thus, the talk will address power dynamics in thebasin with specific references to diplomatic negotiation processes. Bearing in mind thattransboundary water relations in the basin occurs in volatile political circumstances, the talkwill culminate with analyses on the current and emerging issues in the basin, elaborating onthe impact of the Syrian civil war.