Water Crisis and Security in the Middle East Region; Challenges and Ways out
Subject Areas :Esmail AghaMohammadi 1 , Afshin zargar 2 , Fakhreddin Soltani 3
1 - Department of Political Science and International Relations, Ka. C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
2 - Department of Political Science and International Relations, Ka. C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
3 - Department of Political Science and International Relations, Ka. C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
Keywords: Middle East region, Iran, water crisis, Environmental crisis, water shortage, national security, drought, international disputes,
Abstract :
The current research explores the water crisis and the security in the Middle East region. It ad-dresses the challenges and solutions in terms of lack of available fresh water resources and its unbalanced distribution in the face of increase in water demand as a result of the industrializa-tion of societies, population growth and negative effects of climate change which leads to the occurrence of water scarcity and turning it into a global crisis. Hence, concerns about the lack of water resources in the world in recent decades have led to two general speculations about the future. Relations between governments should be formed around international water resources. One hand, there are those who predict that in the near future, water will be a reason for creating violent conflicts between governments. On the other hand, there are writers and theoreticians who believe in the "catalytic" nature of water for the approximation of governments and more cooperation in this field. The issue of water has emerged both in the form of war and coopera-tion. In the meantime, the need for water in the dry and water-scarce region of the Middle East, the weakness of the international water cooperation systems and the numerous political-economic and social tensions in it, have created the arena for the emergence of water-related security threats in this region.
Altinbilek, Dogan (2004). Development and Management of the Euphrates–Tigris Basin, Water Resources Develop-ment Journal, Vol. 20, No. 1, March, pp. 15–33.
Al-Ansari, Nadir, (2016). Hydro-politics of the Tigris and Euphrates basins, Lu-leå University of Technology, Swe-den, Engineering Journal, August, pp. 140-172, Published Online March 2016 in Scientific Research
Arabs on water resources basis, International Journal of Business and Social Sci-ence, Vol. 3, No. 12, pp. 275-289, June 2012
Araghchi, Abbas (2014). Water Diplomacy from Conflict to Cooperation, World Politics Quarterly, No. 14
Araghchi, Abbas (2016). Trans boundary Water Diplomacy and the Interna-tional System, Tehran: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Publishing House.
Buzan, Barry and Weaver, Ellie, (2010). Re-gions and Powers. Translated by Rahman Ghahramanpour, Tehran: Research Center for Strategic Stud-ies.
Dolatyar, Mostafa and Gary, Tim S, (2010). "Water Policy in the Middle East", translated by Rasool Afzali and Reza Al-Tiami nia, Tehran: International Publishing.
Fazeli, Mostafa and Mahnaz Rashidi, (2019). "Investigation of governments' commitment to water security in in-ternational law", Legal Studies, Vol-ume 11, Number 2
Karimi Soltani, Javaheri, F. & Zaheri, (2015). Water crisis in Iran and solutions for correct management and overcoming it", the first conference on water de-mand management and water con-sumption efficiency, Hamadan.
Kaviani Rad, Morad & et al. (2018). "Analy-sis of the concept of water security from the perspective of political ge-ography and geopolitics", Geopoli-tics Quarterly, Volume 15, Number 53
Minaii, Mehdi, (2007). "Water is an effective factor in determining the role and geo-economic position of Iran in the Middle East region", Middle East Studies quarterly, 14th and 15th year, numbers 3 and 4
Mirshekaran, Yahya, (2020). The effect of climate changes on the security-orderly consequences of the water re-sources crisis with an emphasis on the hydro politics of border areas. Climate change studies.
Mohammad Khan, Raja (2015). A perspec-tive on the evolving geopolitics in the Middle East, Margalla Papers.
Mohammadjani, A. and Yazdani, N. (2014). "Analysis of the water crisis situation in the country and its management requirements", Trend magazine (Trend of Economic Research)
Rashidi, Mahnaz, (2020). Water Security in International Law, Tehran: Majd Sci-entific and Cultural Assembly, first edition.
Rezaian, Ahad. Rezaian, Ali Hossein, (2016). The future research of water crisis in Iran by scenario method, Eco hy-drology.
Tryfon, Korontzis (2012). The Foreign Poli-cy of Turkey and Israel against
W. Sadoff, Claudia and Grey, David (2005), Cooperation on international rivers: A continuum for securing and shar-ing benefits, International Water
Resources Association, Water International, Vol. 30, No 4, December 2005.
Yaseri, Majid (2010). The hydro political importance of water in the security of the east of the country, Journal of Po-litical-Economic Information, 24th year, numbers 9 and 10