Water-Peace-Political Stability Nexus
Published on by Nidhi Nagabhatla, Senior Programme Officer at United Nations University in Social
“Uncovering water’s peacebuilding potential requires a constant exploration of the emergent water-peace- political stability nexus and how the various forms of cooperation and conflict interact with this nexus.”
Excerpts from the paper : Peace as a Strategy for Planning Water Secure Futures
The full article available at https://inweh.unu.edu/peace-as-a-strategy-for-planning-water-secure-futures/
10 key points
1. Water is subjugated to both cooperative and conflictive outcomes;
2. It remains pertinent to understand the attribution of water as a direct or indirect driver of conflicts;
3. Water as the cause of conflict is an oversimplification of how water affects conflict, the conflict’s drivers, or the stakeholders’ water-related grievances;
4. Also, understanding the interlinkages between water and the geopolitics is vital explain the interfacing with peace and political stability aspects;
5. Water security conceptual understanding [conceptual framework: https://www.unwater.org/publications/water-security-infographic/ reflects the potential to plan water-secure futures while managing uncertainties that operate in various socio-cultural, socio-economic and socio-political settings;
6. Water security planning when attended within the * environmental peacebuilding objectives bears potential to address conflicts related to land, water, and the climate crisis more inclusively and equitably;
* refers to all forms of cooperation on environmental issues between distinct social groups, which aim at
achieve creating less violent and more peaceful relations between these groups [Ide (2019)]https://academic.oup.com/isr/article-abstract/21/3/327/4953251
7. Decoding this nexus can help to outline “solutions” the capture the interplay of various and diverse water sector-related challenges; existing indices, matrix and indicators can be applied;
8. Blue Peace Index unifies both the hard and soft science qualities that show potential for analyzing data and generating broader pictures of transboundary and domestic water security-https://bluepeaceindex.eiu.com;
9. Understanding this nexus can contribute to the latent peacebuilding potential while ensuring water-secure futures for states and communities;
10. Besides, the peace and political stability stream of knowledge enhancement and capacity development in the context of water security needs awareness and action.
The above set of arguments also derive from a set of case studies-the Cochabamba water crisis of Bolivia, the transboundary water sharing conflicts and cooperation episodes in the Jordan Basin, and the water component in the Syrian conflict.
Related Links
https://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/programs/undergraduate-programs/peace-studies/
https://www.genevawaterhub.org/
https://www.crs.org/sites/default/files/tools-research/water-and-conflict.pdf
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02626667.2015.1081390
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