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Dr. Anders Jägerskog is a Project Director at the Stockholm International Water Institute (www.siwi.org). He advises the Middle Eastern governments, development partners as well as the UN system and IFIs on water policy in the region as well as writes policy and academic papers on water and politics in the MENA region. He is an author of, among others, Why States Cooperate over Shared Water: The Water Negotiations in the Jordan River Basin, Linköping University, Linköping Studies in Arts and Science. See http://www.ep.liu.se/abstract.xsql?dbid=4711.
Discussions of transboundary water issues in regions of the developing world other than the Middle East have tended to focus on development potential and poverty reduction. However, with respect to the Middle East, much of the media coverage and a sizable portion of scholarly writing have been devoted to “water conflicts.” Given the current amount of water available per capita, the high rate of population growth, and the high levels of interstate tension and conflict in the region, images of “water wars” do not seem far-fetched.
