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Three International Water Conflicts to Watch
October 11th, 2024
Via Geopolitical Monitor, a report on three international water conflicts to watch: International water conflicts are a prisoner’s dilemma fundamentally rooted in geopolitics. Neither up nor downriver states can live without it, and water is the lifeblood of development and economic growth. Yet one (upriver) state has a fundamental advantage over the other (downriver) state. All […]
Read more »Tigris–Euphrates Basin States Must Come Together To Address Water Crisis
October 18th, 2023
Via ASPI’s The Strategist, a look at the need for Tigris–Euphrates basin states to come together to address the water crisis: In a dramatic display of collective frustration, the streets of Baghdad recently became a theatre of dissent as around 300 Iraqis took to Nisour Square to protest acute water shortages. The demonstrations were held on 18 […]
Read more »Drought, Migration and the Fall of Civilization: A Cautionary Tale
October 16th, 2023
Via The Hill, commentary on similarities between today’s world and the rise/fall of Mesopotamia: The writer George Santayana once famously said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This adage seems especially poignant at this moment with the twin conflicts that are playing out in the Western and Eastern hemispheres. For, this […]
Read more »Water and Climate Change Will Shape Iraq-Turkey Relations
July 26th, 2023
Via Foreign Policy Research Institute, a look at how water and climate change will shape Iraq-Turkey relations: BOTTOM LINE Water and climate change will be at the center of Iraq-Turkish relations for years to come. There is a mismatch of priorities on the Turkish and Iraqi sides, with security constituting the most urgent element for […]
Read more »The End of the Mesopotamian Basin: Can the Tigris and Euphrates be Saved?
July 25th, 2023
Via Dial, a look at the crisis facing the Mesopotamian basin: When spring hits its full stride in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, hillsides turn from brown to green almost overnight. Seasonal streams course with water, creating a network of tributaries that flow into the historic Tigris and Euphrates rivers. On a Friday in March, Nabil Musa […]
Read more »Water Politics in the Tigris-Euphrates Basin
June 3rd, 2023
Via the Arab Center in Washington DC, a look at water politics in the Tigris-Euphrates Basin: While energy security and the control of oil have long been determining factors for geopolitical conflict in the Middle East, the region’s geopolitics have also, in important ways, been shaped by issues around access to water. Whether along the […]
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