BLOG
A Watershed Moment for Iraqi Kurdistan: Subnational Hydropolitics and Regional Stability
May 24th, 2018
Via the Wilson Center’s New Security Beat, an article on the hydropolitics of Kurdistan, Syria, and Iraq: Iraqi Kurdistan is blessed with abundant water resources, but these resources are under increasing stress. Changing demographics, dam building in neighboring countries, and drought have driven Kurdish hydropolitics to a critical juncture where two distinct water futures are […]
Read more »Water Conflict: Will A Drying Iran Face Syria’s Fate?
January 24th, 2018
Via Geopolitical Monitor, a look at the potential for water related unrest in Iran: Perhaps one of the most quoted predictions regarding the increasing role of water conflicts in global affairs belongs to former vice-president of the World Bank Ismail Serageldin, who in 1995 famously claimed, “Many of the wars of this century were about oil, […]
Read more »‘Blue Gold’ – Turkey’s Key To The ‘Dry Crescent’
December 11th, 2017
Via Global Risk Insights, a report on the impact of Turkey’s efforts to control the headwaters of key water resources in Syria and Iraq: Next year will mark a full century since the Ottoman Empire lost control of the areas now known as Syria and Iraq. Now Turkey is pursuing an increasingly nationalistic and assertive foreign […]
Read more »Running Out of Water: Conflict and Water Scarcity in Yemen and Syria
September 12th, 2017
Via the Atlantic Council, an article on conflict and water scarcity in Yemen and Syria: Photo: People gather around a charity tanker truck to fill up their jerrycans with drinking water in Bajil of the Red Sea province of Hodeidah, Yemen July 29, 2017. Water scarcity may not be the most apparent driver of conflict, […]
Read more »Is Syria Really A ‘Climate War’?
July 22nd, 2017
Via The Conservation, an interesting look at the links between drought, migration and conflict in Syria: The Syrian civil war has raged for more than six years now. You’ve probably heard the following story linking it to climate change: an intense drought, made more likely thanks to global warming, caused “mass migration” within the country from rural to […]
Read more »Three Maps Show How Water Access Can Make Or Break A Nation
March 7th, 2017
Via ValueWalk, a look at the importance of water access to nation states: Water access can impact a country’s geopolitics in many ways. The first (and one of the most obvious) is sea access. Access to the world’s oceans enables a country to use major maritime shipping routes. It also opens an additional route by which a […]
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