Review of Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Water Systems by Aaron T. Wolf, ed.

Abstract

In late November 2002, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Aaron T. Wolf at the international conference entitled ‘‘From conflict to cooperation in international water resources management: Challenges and opportunities’’ that was held at UNESCO-IHE in Delft, The Netherlands. This conference was a testimony to the key leadership role that Dr. Wolf has played in demonstrating through careful historical and geographical studies that water constitutes a vehicle for cooperation rather than hostile confrontation among different kinds of user groups within and among nations. In his keynote address, Dr. Wolf described the international educational and research activities that he is executing on the subject of cooperation over water resources. In an interview that I conducted with Dr. Wolf about the book that he so ably edited, I asked him what motivated him to put together this interesting collection of articles. He responded ‘‘Chuck Howe @the series editor on the Management of Water Resources for Elgar# asked me to compile the papers that got me to where I was in my thinking @about water and conflict resolution#.’’ When I asked him what he thought constituted the main contributions of his book, Dr. Wolf stated ‘‘Both water and conflict resolution are broad topics. Some of the best articles out there @in the literature# are now in one place @in the edited book# and organized in a way that I hope tells a compelling story.’’ Upon my return to Canada, I carefully examined Dr. Wolf’s edited book and discovered that he had indeed put together an intriguing journey for the reader to follow into the realm of conflict prevention and resolution in water systems. The first step on the long voyage is to read the excellent introduction by Dr. Wolf that puts the entire adventure into perspective. An experienced traveler may wish to explore the parts of the tour that he or she has not seen before or wishes to visit again because of their allure. Whatever the case, the eight parts of the book consist of • Human-environment interactions in water resources, • Hydroconflicts, • Hydrocooperation, • Case studies from around the globe, • Institutional approaches for managing water, • Disciplinary approaches to water and conflict management, • The voice of the river, and • Appendices. Each part contains a set of articles by well-respected authors who made significant contributions to the topics which they addressed. Because water and conflict resolution are by definition interdisciplinary and international in scope, it is not at all surprising that the authors of the articles come from many different disciplines and live in countries located throughout the globe.