Vakur Sümer
Biography
Dr. Vakur Sumer is a faculty member at Department of International Relations, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey. Sumer has received his Ph.D. on International Relations, from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. He has worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Global Research Institute at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, NC, USA, and as a visiting scholar at the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California-Davis, CA, USA. He has been a researcher at Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg, Germany in 2012. Sumer has published articles in journals such as Water International and Journal of Peacebuilding and Development. He has recently co-edited a volume, Sustainable Water use and Management, to be published by Springer in December 2014; along with a forthcoming book from I.B. Tauris: Water and Politics in Turkey: Structural Change and EU Accession. He also has attended a number of international and national academic conferences. His areas of expertise include water issues, transboundary rivers, environmental politics, and Turkey’s accession to the European Union. Sumer is a member of ISA (International Studies Association), Environmental Studies Section of ISA, and the International Water Association (IWA).
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Recent Developments Along the Nile Waters: Approaching a Crossroads
Almost all analyses about the Nile focus on Egypt more than any other riparian of the basin. One of the reasons for this is related with the...
‘Hydraulic Mission’ the Middle East: The Turkish Case
Although dam-building is nearly as old as the humanity, it witnessed a rapid rise after the Industrial Revolution. In the second half of the 19th...
Iran’s Water Crisis and its Regional Effects
Voices risingin Iran in recent weeks indicate that the country has beenincreasinglygoing through a water crisis. The wrong and inadequate water...
Reconfiguring the Aquatic Divide in North East Africa: The Rise and Fall of the Great Man Made River
1953 was an annus mirabilis for Libya, when a double godsend was discovered beneath the seemingly infinite desert of the Great Sahara. The...
A Major Bulwark Against the Impacts of Climate Change in the Middle East: The Ilisu Dam Rising
As the completion of the Ilısu Dam is within close sight, it becomes apparent that it will become one of the mostly debated projects of the present ...
Bridging over ‘Turbulent Waters’: The Road towards Water Security in the Middle East
The debate around the concept of water security continues to evolve each day. A World Bank report this month (Sadoff, Claudia W., Edoardo Borgomeo,...
A Perfect Platform for Discussing Water Issues: What can Turkey’s Forestry and Water Shura offer to the Middle East?
Islamic world is actually quite familiar to the concept of ‘shura’. Meaning ‘consultation’, shura is an Arabic word, which left an imposing legacy sta...
Testing the Limits of the Cooperation in the Indus Basin: On the Revival of Permanent Indus Commission
After negotiations lasting for nearly a decade, India and Pakistan, with help the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD,...
Handle with Care! The Tragedy of the Tabqa Dam
Big structures are the perfect candidates for big achievements, but also failures. The Tabqa Dam is the biggest dam in Syria and it is also one of...
On the Revitalization of the Memorandum of Understanding on Water Issues Between Iraq and Turkey: A Hopeful Prospect
Beside the re-handling of the Memorandum of Understanding on Water Issues Between Iraq and Turkey during his visit to Turkey last week, visionary...
Time for a New Water Paradigm in the Middle East: Why do we need the “Blue Revolution 2.0”?
Starting from early years of the twentieth century, many countries of the Middle East have experienced a process of water infrastructure construction...
The Middle East: Towards a New Paradigm of Water Security Who gets what water, where, when and how?
In his pioneer work in 1936, Harold Laswell defined the politics through who gets what, when and where. This definition cannot be considered outdated...
Emulating the “Capillary Action”: What does water teach us about the role of Epistemic Communities in Norm “Infusion”?
Water, more than most of other liquids, has an intriguing ability which is called the “capillary action”. In essence, capillary action is defined as t...
Human Security in the Middle East (II) The Modern Pleiades to Track: Seven Dimensions of Human Security in the Middle East
Ancient people attributed great importance to heavens. They looked at the star constellations to guide their lives. They simply planned their...
Human (In)Security in the Middle East (I): An Overview of A Concept in the Making
Security studies have experienced a proliferation following the Cold War. Previously neglected (or less studied) aspects of the security became under...
On the Evolution of Transboundary Aquifer Law and the Middle East
There are nearly half a thousand international agreements concerning the management of transboundary water resources. Despite it accounts for at...
Water and the War with Daesh: The Mosul Paradox
The significance of Mosul unfolds itself in numerous dimensions. Its place in history is extraordinary. The great Assyrian city of Nineveh, where ...
Oslo+21 and Water Problems in Palestine: A Story of Failure
More than two decades passed since the landmark deal between Israelis and Palestinians, namely the Oslo Accords. Water has always been a focal point...
DAESH: A Neo-Wittfogelian Initiative?
“Oriental Despotism” is a great book. The author, Karl Wittfogel, a notable German-American expert on Chinese anthropology, writing in 1957, had arg...
September Agreement and Transboundary Water Cooperation in the Nile Basin: Still Not Testing the Limits of Progress
On September 20, 2016, three major riparians of the Nile transboundary river basin, namely Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan signed a contract to carry out...
On the Eve of Entry into Force: Paris Agreement and the Middle East
The UN has recently declared “the Paris Agreement will enter into force on 4 November 2016, thirty days after the date on which at least 55 Parties t...
Developing Unevenly: The Outlook of Access to Water and Sanitation in the Middle East
JMP is an acronym for Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation. It is administered by World Health Organization and UNICEF. It was a...
An Agenda for Integration: Climate Change and Transboundary Water Issues in the Middle East
Integrating climate change into transboundary water politics is not easy. Apart from being a relatively new focus of attention (which partly explains...
One Step Forward: The Concept of Water Security in the Middle East
The concept of water security is on the rise. There are both narrow(er) and wide(r) definitions. A -too- narrow definition deals only with a single...
Key Message in Helsinki Rules After Half a Century: A Still Workable Guideline for the Middle East
in August 1966, i.e. some fifty years ago, in Helsinki, Finland,the International Law Association (ILA) adopted a set of rules on how rivers and...
The Political-economic Factors Behind Yemen’s Water Crisis
Yemen is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. With no perennial running surface waters, the main source of water has traditionally ...
The Water Dimension in Turkish-Israeli Rapprochement
Gaza strip has long been one of the epicenters of water crisis in the eastern Mediterranean coast, also known as the Levant. The recent...
Critical Links Between Water and State Authority: Syrian Example
In recent decades, the Middle East witnessed a number of cases where regular state authority diminished and partly replaced by a number of non-state...
A New Form of Virtual Water in the Middle East: Buying up Land for Agriculture
Increasing water scarcity triggers new solutions. A number of Middle East countries started to intensify their efforts towards buying large lands in...
Revisiting OECD’s Water Principles: An Integral Guide for Management of Middle Eastern Waters?
A study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defined a comprehensive list of core principles for a better water...
Toward a more Integrated Nexus Framework: (Re)thinking about Water and Economy
An aptly titled report by World Bank, “High and Dry”, appears to be one of the most recent warnings about risks of a dangerous tandem of raising temp...
The “Second Wave" of Interbasin Water Transfers in the Middle East: Adding “Transboundary Dimension" to Cox’ Framework
Interbasin water transfers have, from several dimensions, often been issues of lively debates, and from time to time, of friction. There has been a...
Climate Wars in the Middle East? or Good Governance Defying Scarcity
It is intriguing to read a recent article (Spatiotemporal drought variability in the Mediterranean over the last 900 years, published in the Journal...
An Analysis of Low Oil Prices’ Impact on Water in the Middle East: ’Virtually' impossible Water for the Gulf Countries?
Virtual water is a greatly illuminating concept for understanding the water-food nexus. In its orig-inal formulation, according to J.A. Allan, the...
Water in the Islamic World: A Mixed Picture with some Deepening Challenges
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), has recently published a report on the water situation in Islamic World. The main aim of the OIC has ...
A New Phase in Iranian Economy and Its Implications in Hydropolitics in the Middle East
Iran’s “nuclear deal” in 2015 implies not only a new phase in Iranian economy, but also a change in Iranian stance in Middle East hydropolitics. It is...
Agreement over Nile? Khartoum Declaration and Ten Principles that Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia Have Agreed Upon
In 2015, three important Nile Basin countries, namely Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have reached a common ground for managing transboundary water of the...
Towards a New Stage in Water Management in Cyprus: Impact of Turkey’s Water Transfer to TRNC as a Facilitative Factor
The final stage concerning the negotiations between the Republic of Turkey and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on the management of water...
War over Tishreen Dam: Growing Signficance of Hydraulic structures in the Middle East
Dams have played increasingly important roles in Iraq and Syria during the last decade or so. First theater of war was the Tabqah Dam, which has...
The Paris Agreement: A Basic Anatomy of a Vulnerable Victory
Following nearly a decade of preparations and the recent round of intense negotiations between November 30 and December 12, in Paris, France; 195 ...
Climate Change Changing Minds in the Middle East: Road towards COP21 and Beyond
Having gathered in Paris, France, leaders of 150 states, along with some 40,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries, are discussing at the United...
European Commission’s Annual Progress Report on Turkey: Moderate Progress in Chapter on Environment and Climate Change
The European Commission has recently published 2015 Progress Report. As it is already known, out of 33 Chapters, 14 have been opened so far within...
Water in a New Sectoral Layout: The Way Out of a Deadlock in the Middle East
New studies are published everyday on how water resources management problems are evolving. A recent report by CDP on “Global Water” has also dem...
Poisoning of Transboundary Water Management in Central Asia in Two Stages: The Soviet Plunder and the Introduction of Classical Westphalian State-Syst
Two developments had profound impacts on the fate of transboundary waters in Central Asia. First is related with the extensive use of water by...
The Promise of Desalination: Panacea for Water Problems in Middle East?
Desalination is defined by the International Desalination Association (IDA) as “the process of removing dissolved salts from water, thus producing f...
ABCDEF of Water Management: What does it mean for the Middle East?
In a seminal work, Perry (2008) argued that water management incorporates a number of elements, in forms of processes or practices. He called these...
Agreement over Disi Aquifer: An Analysis of Saudi-Jordanian Cooperation on Transboundary Groundwater Management
An Agreement between the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the Management and...
Cure for all the Water Woes in the Jordan Basin? An Analysis of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Project
Israel and Jordan agreedearlier this year on the multipurpose project of the “Red Sea–Dead Sea Canal”.The agreement which worth $800 millionwas the re...
15 Years On: Millennium Development Goals and the Middle East
Eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted after the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000. After some 15 years, there are both...
Role of the European Court of Justice in Implementation of the European Water Framework Directive: Implications for Turkey
A recent ruling of the highest court of Europe, namely the European Court of Justice (ECJ) signalled that the so-called “toothless tiger”, the Water F...
Water Crisis of Iran and its Possible Ramifications
For Iran, 2014 was a period that the continued water crisis in the country has further exacerbated. It could be anticipated that 2015 would be...
The Trap of “Naive Realism” in Transboundary Water Politics in the Middle East
In 1995, Ross and Ward analyzed a psychological mindset, the so-called naive realism. They concluded that this type of thinking may have implications...
Water is what states make out of it: On water efficiency challenge in the Middle East and how it is related with peace and stability in the region
It is not only economically rational,but at at he same time politically difficult to raise the issue of water efficiency. While this is even so in t...
Water Politics along the Euphrates and Tigris: Why does not (and will not) Turkey Use Water as a Weapon against its Southern Neighbors?
Transboundary water relations among riparians of the Euphrates and Tigris are generally depicted as one of the so called “hot spots”, with an inh...
The Water Problem in Pakistan: A Country Running Dry
With its 182 million people -which continues to rise rapidly- over a territory of approximately 797 thousand square kilometers, Pakistan is among the...
Meric-Ergene River Basin: A Microcosm of Turkey’s National and Transboundary Water Management Challenges
This brief paper takes Meric[1]-Ergene river basin as a “microcosm” of water management issues that have been experienced in Turkey. Studying the pro...
Half Way towards 2020 Deadline: An Analysis of the Current Situation of Implementation of National Climate Change Strategy of Turkey
It has been five years since the inception of the National Climate Strategy of Turkey which aimed at reaching a considerable number of goals...
EU Water Framework Directive towards the End of First Implementation Cycle: Disappointment and Hope
The European Union’s main water-related legislation, i.e. the Water Framework Directive (WFD) approaches to end of its first cycle of implementation. ...
Deal over the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam: A New Chapter in Cooperation in the Nile Basin?
According to Egypt”s official news agency, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have reached a preliminary agreement on sharing the Nile River's waters and o...
A New Chapter in Iraqi-Turkish Transboundary Water Relations?
Several weeks after the resignation of previous Iraqi administration in August, Turkish President Erdoğan and his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Masum met on ...
Three Decades after Three-Stage Plan: Time for a Reappraisal
In 1984, after several years of tri-partite negotiations among riparians of the Euphrates-Tigris watercourse system namely Iraq, Syria and Turkey...
Adding “Integration” to “Three I’s” and a Maslowian Dilemma: Water Problem in the Middle-East
On October 24, 2014, Jim W. Hall and his colleagues published a briefing on the well-known journal, Science, with the title “Coping with the curse of ...
Water under Fire: Water Calamity in Gaza and Prospects for Solution
Water problem is a grave concern in Gaza Strip. In addition to long-lasting difficulties associated with various aspects of water, including limited...
Transboundary Cooperation for Using Treated Sewage Effluent for Groundwater Recharge in the Middle East: Opportunities and Obstacles
The countries of the Middle East, most of which rank among the world’s most water-scarce ones, should focus more on reusing existing water resources. ...
Water Management in Transboundary Basins as a “Wicked Problem”? The Case of Orontes Transboundary River Basin
A workshop to discuss the Orontes River Basin was convened at MEF University, Istanbul, Turkey, during November 12-14, 2014. Workshop attendees from...
The Geneva Consensus on Tigris: A Major Breakthrough?
It was on June 3, 2014 when a statement from Strategic Foresight Group, an India-based think-tank, was announcing a “major breakthrough” on promotion ...
Recent Developments Along the Nile Waters: Approaching a Crossroads
Almost all analyses about the Nile focus on Egypt more than any other riparian of the basin. One of the reasons for this is related with the...
‘Hydraulic Mission’ the Middle East: The Turkish Case
Although dam-building is nearly as old as the humanity, it witnessed a rapid rise after the Industrial Revolution. In the second half of the 19th...
Iran’s Water Crisis and its Regional Effects
Voices risingin Iran in recent weeks indicate that the country has beenincreasinglygoing through a water crisis. The wrong and inadequate water...
Reconfiguring the Aquatic Divide in North East Africa: The Rise and Fall of the Great Man Made River
1953 was an annus mirabilis for Libya, when a double godsend was discovered beneath the seemingly infinite desert of the Great Sahara. The...
A Major Bulwark Against the Impacts of Climate Change in the Middle East: The Ilisu Dam Rising
As the completion of the Ilısu Dam is within close sight, it becomes apparent that it will become one of the mostly debated projects of the present ...
Bridging over ‘Turbulent Waters’: The Road towards Water Security in the Middle East
The debate around the concept of water security continues to evolve each day. A World Bank report this month (Sadoff, Claudia W., Edoardo Borgomeo,...
A Perfect Platform for Discussing Water Issues: What can Turkey’s Forestry and Water Shura offer to the Middle East?
Islamic world is actually quite familiar to the concept of ‘shura’. Meaning ‘consultation’, shura is an Arabic word, which left an imposing legacy sta...
Testing the Limits of the Cooperation in the Indus Basin: On the Revival of Permanent Indus Commission
After negotiations lasting for nearly a decade, India and Pakistan, with help the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD,...
Handle with Care! The Tragedy of the Tabqa Dam
Big structures are the perfect candidates for big achievements, but also failures. The Tabqa Dam is the biggest dam in Syria and it is also one of...
On the Revitalization of the Memorandum of Understanding on Water Issues Between Iraq and Turkey: A Hopeful Prospect
Beside the re-handling of the Memorandum of Understanding on Water Issues Between Iraq and Turkey during his visit to Turkey last week, visionary...
Time for a New Water Paradigm in the Middle East: Why do we need the “Blue Revolution 2.0”?
Starting from early years of the twentieth century, many countries of the Middle East have experienced a process of water infrastructure construction...
The Middle East: Towards a New Paradigm of Water Security Who gets what water, where, when and how?
In his pioneer work in 1936, Harold Laswell defined the politics through who gets what, when and where. This definition cannot be considered outdated...
Emulating the “Capillary Action”: What does water teach us about the role of Epistemic Communities in Norm “Infusion”?
Water, more than most of other liquids, has an intriguing ability which is called the “capillary action”. In essence, capillary action is defined as t...
Human Security in the Middle East (II) The Modern Pleiades to Track: Seven Dimensions of Human Security in the Middle East
Ancient people attributed great importance to heavens. They looked at the star constellations to guide their lives. They simply planned their...
Human (In)Security in the Middle East (I): An Overview of A Concept in the Making
Security studies have experienced a proliferation following the Cold War. Previously neglected (or less studied) aspects of the security became under...
On the Evolution of Transboundary Aquifer Law and the Middle East
There are nearly half a thousand international agreements concerning the management of transboundary water resources. Despite it accounts for at...
Water and the War with Daesh: The Mosul Paradox
The significance of Mosul unfolds itself in numerous dimensions. Its place in history is extraordinary. The great Assyrian city of Nineveh, where ...
Oslo+21 and Water Problems in Palestine: A Story of Failure
More than two decades passed since the landmark deal between Israelis and Palestinians, namely the Oslo Accords. Water has always been a focal point...
DAESH: A Neo-Wittfogelian Initiative?
“Oriental Despotism” is a great book. The author, Karl Wittfogel, a notable German-American expert on Chinese anthropology, writing in 1957, had arg...
September Agreement and Transboundary Water Cooperation in the Nile Basin: Still Not Testing the Limits of Progress
On September 20, 2016, three major riparians of the Nile transboundary river basin, namely Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan signed a contract to carry out...
On the Eve of Entry into Force: Paris Agreement and the Middle East
The UN has recently declared “the Paris Agreement will enter into force on 4 November 2016, thirty days after the date on which at least 55 Parties t...
Developing Unevenly: The Outlook of Access to Water and Sanitation in the Middle East
JMP is an acronym for Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation. It is administered by World Health Organization and UNICEF. It was a...
An Agenda for Integration: Climate Change and Transboundary Water Issues in the Middle East
Integrating climate change into transboundary water politics is not easy. Apart from being a relatively new focus of attention (which partly explains...
One Step Forward: The Concept of Water Security in the Middle East
The concept of water security is on the rise. There are both narrow(er) and wide(r) definitions. A -too- narrow definition deals only with a single...
Key Message in Helsinki Rules After Half a Century: A Still Workable Guideline for the Middle East
in August 1966, i.e. some fifty years ago, in Helsinki, Finland,the International Law Association (ILA) adopted a set of rules on how rivers and...
The Political-economic Factors Behind Yemen’s Water Crisis
Yemen is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. With no perennial running surface waters, the main source of water has traditionally ...
The Water Dimension in Turkish-Israeli Rapprochement
Gaza strip has long been one of the epicenters of water crisis in the eastern Mediterranean coast, also known as the Levant. The recent...
Critical Links Between Water and State Authority: Syrian Example
In recent decades, the Middle East witnessed a number of cases where regular state authority diminished and partly replaced by a number of non-state...
A New Form of Virtual Water in the Middle East: Buying up Land for Agriculture
Increasing water scarcity triggers new solutions. A number of Middle East countries started to intensify their efforts towards buying large lands in...
Revisiting OECD’s Water Principles: An Integral Guide for Management of Middle Eastern Waters?
A study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defined a comprehensive list of core principles for a better water...
Toward a more Integrated Nexus Framework: (Re)thinking about Water and Economy
An aptly titled report by World Bank, “High and Dry”, appears to be one of the most recent warnings about risks of a dangerous tandem of raising temp...
The “Second Wave" of Interbasin Water Transfers in the Middle East: Adding “Transboundary Dimension" to Cox’ Framework
Interbasin water transfers have, from several dimensions, often been issues of lively debates, and from time to time, of friction. There has been a...
Climate Wars in the Middle East? or Good Governance Defying Scarcity
It is intriguing to read a recent article (Spatiotemporal drought variability in the Mediterranean over the last 900 years, published in the Journal...
An Analysis of Low Oil Prices’ Impact on Water in the Middle East: ’Virtually' impossible Water for the Gulf Countries?
Virtual water is a greatly illuminating concept for understanding the water-food nexus. In its orig-inal formulation, according to J.A. Allan, the...
Water in the Islamic World: A Mixed Picture with some Deepening Challenges
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), has recently published a report on the water situation in Islamic World. The main aim of the OIC has ...
A New Phase in Iranian Economy and Its Implications in Hydropolitics in the Middle East
Iran’s “nuclear deal” in 2015 implies not only a new phase in Iranian economy, but also a change in Iranian stance in Middle East hydropolitics. It is...
Agreement over Nile? Khartoum Declaration and Ten Principles that Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia Have Agreed Upon
In 2015, three important Nile Basin countries, namely Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have reached a common ground for managing transboundary water of the...
Towards a New Stage in Water Management in Cyprus: Impact of Turkey’s Water Transfer to TRNC as a Facilitative Factor
The final stage concerning the negotiations between the Republic of Turkey and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on the management of water...
War over Tishreen Dam: Growing Signficance of Hydraulic structures in the Middle East
Dams have played increasingly important roles in Iraq and Syria during the last decade or so. First theater of war was the Tabqah Dam, which has...
The Paris Agreement: A Basic Anatomy of a Vulnerable Victory
Following nearly a decade of preparations and the recent round of intense negotiations between November 30 and December 12, in Paris, France; 195 ...
Climate Change Changing Minds in the Middle East: Road towards COP21 and Beyond
Having gathered in Paris, France, leaders of 150 states, along with some 40,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries, are discussing at the United...
European Commission’s Annual Progress Report on Turkey: Moderate Progress in Chapter on Environment and Climate Change
The European Commission has recently published 2015 Progress Report. As it is already known, out of 33 Chapters, 14 have been opened so far within...Water in a New Sectoral Layout: The Way Out of a Deadlock in the Middle East
New studies are published everyday on how water resources management problems are evolving. A recent report by CDP on “Global Water” has also dem...
Poisoning of Transboundary Water Management in Central Asia in Two Stages: The Soviet Plunder and the Introduction of Classical Westphalian State-Syst
Two developments had profound impacts on the fate of transboundary waters in Central Asia. First is related with the extensive use of water by...
The Promise of Desalination: Panacea for Water Problems in Middle East?
Desalination is defined by the International Desalination Association (IDA) as “the process of removing dissolved salts from water, thus producing f...
ABCDEF of Water Management: What does it mean for the Middle East?
In a seminal work, Perry (2008) argued that water management incorporates a number of elements, in forms of processes or practices. He called these...
Agreement over Disi Aquifer: An Analysis of Saudi-Jordanian Cooperation on Transboundary Groundwater Management
An Agreement between the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the Management and...
Cure for all the Water Woes in the Jordan Basin? An Analysis of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Project
Israel and Jordan agreedearlier this year on the multipurpose project of the “Red Sea–Dead Sea Canal”.The agreement which worth $800 millionwas the re...
15 Years On: Millennium Development Goals and the Middle East
Eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted after the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000. After some 15 years, there are both...
Role of the European Court of Justice in Implementation of the European Water Framework Directive: Implications for Turkey
A recent ruling of the highest court of Europe, namely the European Court of Justice (ECJ) signalled that the so-called “toothless tiger”, the Water F...
Water Crisis of Iran and its Possible Ramifications
For Iran, 2014 was a period that the continued water crisis in the country has further exacerbated. It could be anticipated that 2015 would be...
The Trap of “Naive Realism” in Transboundary Water Politics in the Middle East
In 1995, Ross and Ward analyzed a psychological mindset, the so-called naive realism. They concluded that this type of thinking may have implications...
Water is what states make out of it: On water efficiency challenge in the Middle East and how it is related with peace and stability in the region
It is not only economically rational,but at at he same time politically difficult to raise the issue of water efficiency. While this is even so in t...
Water Politics along the Euphrates and Tigris: Why does not (and will not) Turkey Use Water as a Weapon against its Southern Neighbors?
Transboundary water relations among riparians of the Euphrates and Tigris are generally depicted as one of the so called “hot spots”, with an inh...
The Water Problem in Pakistan: A Country Running Dry
With its 182 million people -which continues to rise rapidly- over a territory of approximately 797 thousand square kilometers, Pakistan is among the...
Meric-Ergene River Basin: A Microcosm of Turkey’s National and Transboundary Water Management Challenges
This brief paper takes Meric[1]-Ergene river basin as a “microcosm” of water management issues that have been experienced in Turkey. Studying the pro...
Half Way towards 2020 Deadline: An Analysis of the Current Situation of Implementation of National Climate Change Strategy of Turkey
It has been five years since the inception of the National Climate Strategy of Turkey which aimed at reaching a considerable number of goals...
EU Water Framework Directive towards the End of First Implementation Cycle: Disappointment and Hope
The European Union’s main water-related legislation, i.e. the Water Framework Directive (WFD) approaches to end of its first cycle of implementation. ...
Deal over the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam: A New Chapter in Cooperation in the Nile Basin?
According to Egypt”s official news agency, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have reached a preliminary agreement on sharing the Nile River's waters and o...
A New Chapter in Iraqi-Turkish Transboundary Water Relations?
Several weeks after the resignation of previous Iraqi administration in August, Turkish President Erdoğan and his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Masum met on ...
Three Decades after Three-Stage Plan: Time for a Reappraisal
In 1984, after several years of tri-partite negotiations among riparians of the Euphrates-Tigris watercourse system namely Iraq, Syria and Turkey...
Adding “Integration” to “Three I’s” and a Maslowian Dilemma: Water Problem in the Middle-East
On October 24, 2014, Jim W. Hall and his colleagues published a briefing on the well-known journal, Science, with the title “Coping with the curse of ...
Water under Fire: Water Calamity in Gaza and Prospects for Solution
Water problem is a grave concern in Gaza Strip. In addition to long-lasting difficulties associated with various aspects of water, including limited...
Transboundary Cooperation for Using Treated Sewage Effluent for Groundwater Recharge in the Middle East: Opportunities and Obstacles
The countries of the Middle East, most of which rank among the world’s most water-scarce ones, should focus more on reusing existing water resources. ...Water Management in Transboundary Basins as a “Wicked Problem”? The Case of Orontes Transboundary River Basin
A workshop to discuss the Orontes River Basin was convened at MEF University, Istanbul, Turkey, during November 12-14, 2014. Workshop attendees from...
