Water Politics in the Middle East - Context for Conflict or Cooperation? by M Dolatyar & T Gray Hardcover

Book Synopsis

Most studies of water scarcity in the Middle East conclude that there is a significant risk of imminent conflict, even warfare, between states in the region. This book demonstrates that the evidence does not support this doom-laden prediction. Indeed, the authors show that although water scarcity has occasionally played a role in disputes in the Middle East, it has much more often promoted co-existence between adversaries. The reasoning behind this hypothesis is that water is too critical to be put at risk by warfare.

About the Author

MOSTAFA DOLATYAR has been associated with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1991. He received his PhD in Politics from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1998. His publications include The Legal Regime of International Straits: With Emphasis on the Legal Issues of the Hormuz Strait, The Middle Eastern Environment and The Iranian Journal of International Affairs, Vol.8.

TIM S. GRAY has been lecturer in the Politics Department, University of Newcastle upon Tyne since 1963. He was appointed Head of Department in 1994, and to a personal Chair in Political Thought in 1996. Trained as a political theorist he has published books and articles on Herbert Spencer, Edmund Burke and Flora Tristan and on the concept of freedom. Developing an interest in environmental politics from 1990, he has also published articles and chapters on the politics of fishing, whaling and population control.