Synopsis:

I will argue that efforts to resolve water conflicts will be assisted through more critical analysis of transboundary water interaction between countries. Water conflict management and resolution efforts are largely founded on research that posits conflict and cooperation as opposing forces and goals; obscures the local setting, through data-limited econometric methods; and suggests asymmetries in capacity of actors are unimportant. Sustainable solutions to water conflicts will require an understanding of the nature of the mix of persuasion and coercion active at the basin level, as well as an appreciation of the local social, economic, biophysical and political circumstances. Analysis can thus be sharpened through an inter-disciplinary frame that combines hydropolitics with International Relations, international law, hydrology, and climate science, amongst others. Current transboundary arrangements along the Nile, Jordan, and Euphrates rivers are use to exemplify the extent to which constructive or destructive ‘hydro-hegemony’ may be encouraged or addressed.

Biography:

Dr Mark Zeitoun is Founder of the UEA Water Security Research Centre, and a Reader at the School of International Development, University of East Anglia. His research on environmental policy and politics follows three themes: a) transboundary water conflict and cooperation, at international, sub-national and trans-national levels; b) water policy and social justice issues; and c) urban water supply and treatment during and immediately following armed conflict. This stems from his work as a humanitarian-aid water engineer and advisor on water security policy, hydro-diplomacy, and transboundary water negotiations in conflict and post-conflict zones throughout Africa and the Middle East.