Abstract
This author (Brauch 2005a) argued that the conceptual ideas of David Mitrany, George Marshall and Jean Monnet were instrumental for 60 years of peace in Europe and for European integration, and those of Mikhail Gorbachev for overcoming the Cold War and contributing to the reunification of the continent. Brauch (2003, 2005) contrasted different security perceptions of narrow national security threats with a widened security concept that includes economic, societal and environmental dimensions and other levels of analysis and referents, with a special focus on human security (Bogardi/ Brauch 2005). Brauch (2005a) projected the regional impact of global environmental change and potential extreme outcomes for the Middle East until 2050 and 2100 arguing that these environmental challenges are not yet perceived by Arabs and Israelis as common threats to their security and survival. He focused on water demand due to population growth, urbanisation and food needs, as well as the changing supply due to the impact of climate change on precipitation, soil erosion, drought and desertification in the region. He suggested that these common challenges to human security should become an object of functional cooperation within the region, and that these efforts may contribute to a long-term environmental conflict avoidance. This chapter builds on these conceptual and theoretical considerations and trend projections of demand factors (population growth, urbanisation, agriculture) as well as crucial natural supply factors of air (climate change), soil (degradation, erosion, desertification) and water (scarcity, degradation, salination) for the three countries with borders at the Gulf of Aqaba: Egypt, Israel and Jordan. These three countries have entered into bilateral peace treaties in 1979 between Egypt and Israel and in 1994 between Israel and Jordan. In this chapter Palestine or the presently Occupied Palestinian Territories in Gaza and in the West Bank are included. Drawing lessons from 60 years of peace in Europe after World War II, this chapter develops a conceptual proposal for functional cooperation that is inspired by the ideas of Mitrany, Marshall and Monnet. They broke out of the perennial cycle of war and with their ideas of cooperation among former enemies they contributed to the emergence of functional and intergovernmental cooperation and supranational govern-
Published Version
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