The Middle Eastern Environment: Selected Papers of the 1995 Conference of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies [Paperback]

... a very useful suite of studies which throws light on the region's environment ...

... diverse in scope to reflect the wide range of influences that impact on the Middle Eastern environment.

Useful material for those wanting a regional overview.

... a useful collection of studies and diverse analyses, throwing light on a wide range of problems and future perspectives ...

Banner headlines testify to the increased awareness of environmental problems in the Middle East and to the urgency of solving them. Whether the concern is with the dumping of toxic waste in Arab countries, or with the need for Islamic solutions to prevent ecological disaster - Middle Eastern newspapers are raising awareness of environmental issues and of the potential ill effects they can have throughout the region. Written by some of the leading scholars in their own particular fields, the 18 essays in this book bring together subjects as diverse as the Oslo agreement, nuclear weapons in Israel, and Islamic development agendas in sub-Saharan Africa. The book reflects the range of influences that impact on the Middle Eastern environment, rendering a specialized and topical area of thought to a broad reading public.

Water diplomacy in the Middle East

Protection and optimal use of the environment have in recent years moved so rapidly into the mainstream of international affairs that some politicians claim democracy, prosperity, security, international co-operation, and the environment are all interconnected. There is also a consensus that no country acting alone can have a significant effect on global and regional environmental problems and that the failure of collective action will curb any achievement. In the Middle East, access to water has always been a key environmental factor in the politics of the region. In the context of policy proposals made by Middle Eastern countries in the last three decades, environmental considerations have deeply influenced both domestic and foreign policies within the region. While the resource geopolitics of the region has been dominated by oil - the most plentiful natural resource of the region and one which affects international relations throughout the world - water, the scarcest natural resource of the region, affects relations between Middle Eastern countries even more than oil does. Indeed, so vital to the region is fresh water that the lack of adequate supplies has forced Middle Eastern leaders into strange and sometimes unwanted alliances and confrontations. This is mainly because the predominance of trans-national rivers and aquifers in the Middle East limits the extent to which water problems can be resolved at an intra-state level.
As a cardinal environmental issue, the lack of water has critically shaped the foreign policy of Middle Eastern countries in their mutual relationships. This is what is known as “water diplomacy”. Since the most serious water conflicts in the region have centred on control of the tributaries and groundwater reservoirs of the Jordan-Yarmouk River basin and since its water resources are still an integral part both of the on-going conflict and of the current peace process, this paper focuses on water politics in this basin and deals only with Israel and its neighbours. The aim of the paper is to introduce a new interpretation of water diplomacy in which water is seen as an important factor in determining a country’s foreign policy, one which has caused war and featured peace, but which is unlikely to cause a new war.