Winning the Peace in Mesopotamia
Publisher: Cicero Magazine
Author(s): Luke J. Schumacher and Joshua Shapiro
Date: 2015
Topics: Conflict Causes, Renewable Resources
Countries: Iraq, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey
Academics, generals, and the intelligence community are generally in agreement concerning the changing character of war: yesterday’s wars were waged over land, today’s for energy, while tomorrow’s will be fought for increasingly-scarce water resources.
If this assessment is correct, world leaders have good reason to worry that competition for dwindling water resources along the Tigris-Euphrates is likely to foil any efforts at establishing a sustainable Mesopotamian peace. If and when the guns fall silent, no matter who governs and inhabits the territory constituting present day Iraq and Syria, competition over water will catalyze the “conflict trap” to which all war-torn regions are already susceptible.