Power and Water in the Middle East The Hidden Politics of the Palestinian-Israeli Water Conflict

by Zeitoun, Mark

• ISBN13: 9781845114640
• ISBN10: 1845114647
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-15
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris

Summary

Power and Water in the Middle Eastprovides a powerful new perspective on the Palestinian-Israeli water conflict. Adopting a new approach to understanding water conflict - hydro-hegemony- the author shows the conflict to be much more deeply entrenched than previously thought and reveals how existing tactics to control water are leading away from peace and towards continued domination and a squandering of this vital resource. Exisiting theories tend to play down the negative effects of non-violent water conflicts, and what is often presented as co-operation between countries hides a deep imbalance and underlying state of conflict between them. Mark Zeitoun's important work shows how the new analytical framework of hydro-hegemony may be used to expose the hidden dynamics of water conflicts around the world and how, in particular, it yields critical insights into the Middle East water situation. Combining extensive technical knowledge with personal experience in the field, the author offers important new findings that will interest researchers, professionals and policy makers involved with the politics of the Middle East and with water conflict more generally.

Author Biography

Mark Zeitoun is a water engineer with more than a decade of experience in conflict and post conflict zones, including the Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Chad and the Republic of Congo. He is with the Centre of Environmental Policy and Governance at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Water Wars or Water Conflicts

Understanding Power and Water

Setting

An Asymmetrically Distrubuted Resource

Hydropolitics: Completing Claims and Discourses

Hard Power - Coercing the Outcome

Bargaining Powere - the Joint Water Committee

Ideational Power - Imposing Ideas

Hydraulic Powerr: Domiation of Production

Hydro-hegemony

Appendices

Index

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