Resolution of international water conflicts: from the US Southwest to the Euphrates River basin states

Abstract

Environmental security models predict that natural resource scarcities, in particular freshwater, can increase the probability of conflict within and between countries. This is an especially critical problem on internationally shared rivers in the arid Middle East. Riparians in the arid US west have long relied on interstate water compacts to manage their interstate waters effectively and to resolve their conflicts peacefully. This paper identifies a hitherto ignored research path. It lays out the rationale for systematically analysing the strategies used in the US compacts in order to derive conflict-mitigating approaches that could be adapted to the Euphrates River basin states.