The War That Never Happened: The Sharing of Euphrates Tigris Rivers' Water Between Turkey, Syria and Iraq

Abstract

Most recent studies and reports indicate that there is a significant risk of conflict over water sharing in the Middle East because of scarcity. Apart from exaggerating the scarcity of water resources and the likelihood of war, the major flaw of these assessments is that they just identify and do not solve the problem of water scarcity. The idea that water scarcity is the main source of conflict in the region is too narrow. Because water is so essential to life, even hostile coriparians have historically sought to compromise rather go to war over this resource, even as disputes have raged on other issues. The historical record is predominantly cooperation rather than conflict when it comes to water sharing. This thesis provides a clear description of why water scarcity has not caused a violent conflict between Turkey, Syria and Iraq in the Euphrates-Tigris River Basin.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2003
Accession Number
ADA417543

Entities

People

  • Mehmet Yilmaz

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Drainage Basins
  • Droughts
  • Environment
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Flood Control
  • Geography
  • Groundwater
  • International Law
  • International Relations
  • Minority Groups
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Recreation
  • Treaties
  • Water Resources
  • Water Supplies

Readers

  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Environmental Engineering
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies