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Dr. Marwa Daoudy is a lecturer at the political science department of the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies (Geneva). She was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania and a post-doctoral researcher at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and the Centre for International Studies and Research in Paris (Sciences Po, CNRS). She is also a consultant in international affairs for international organizations and the private sector. She is an author of, among others, The Water Divide between Iraq, Syria and Turkey, Security, Negotiation and Power Asymmetry, CNRS Editions (Paris, 2005), and TransboundaryWater Cooperation as a Tool for Conflict Prevention and Broader Benefit-Sharing, co-authored with Phillips, McCaffrey, Öjendal & Turton (Stockholm: Ministry for Foreign Affairs Expert Group on Development Issues, 2006).
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.
From Conflict Transformation to Conflict Resolution?
Originally posted June 2008
Intra-basin dynamics amongst the Euphrates and Tigris co-riparians — Iraq, Syria, and Turkey — are better described as leading to conflict transformation rather than conflict resolution. The process of interaction has effectively seen the de-securitization of water issues, but the roots of the conflict have not yet been fully addressed.
