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171. Mission Not Yet Accomplished: Managing Water Resources in the Nile River Basin

Author:
Ashok Swain
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
River runoff is widely accepted as one of the most important sources of avaiable fresh water for human consumption. Worldwide, there are 263 major river systems that cross national boundaries and are responsible for 85 percent of the earth's runoff. When two or more countries are dependent on the same river system, upstream withdrawal, pollution or management can lead not only to upstream-downstream conflict but also to cooperation. In recent years, policymaking and research communities have been engaged in exploring various means to transform conflict into riparian cooperation in these international river basins. The following analysis explores this notion through a closer look at the Nile River, which has long been considered the longest international river in the world. Many analysts have considered that the Nile River has a high potential to induce interstate conflict. At least for the greater part of the 20th century, the Nile River has been the source of political tension among three of its major riparian countries—Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. In the face of potential armed conflict and regional instability, the Nile basin countries, in cooperation with the international community, have recently begun working for basin-wide cooperative solutions. The main aim of this paper is to suggest policy measures that riparian countries, as well as the international community, might be in a position to adopt, which could further reduce tension over scarce water resources and facilitating effective and lasting cooperation in the Nile basin. It is crucial not only for the region, but also for global peace and development, to achieve success in bringing the countries together in the basin for efficient benefit sharing of resources of this important river.
Topic:
Population
Political Geography:
Central Asia, Ethiopia, and Egypt

172. A Missed Chance for Peace: Israel and Syria's Negotiations over the Golan Heights

Author:
Marwa Daoudy
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
In the Middle East “no war is possible without Egypt, and no peace is possible without Syria,” as suggested by former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the 1970s. From 1991 to 2000, Syria entered into extensive peace negotiations with Israel, another key actor in the Middle East. The objective of this article is to understand these negotiations, which involved periods of intense discord as well as moments of rapprochement. Spectacular progress was made, for instance, between 1993 and 1995, when the “Rabin deposit,” Israel's promise to withdraw from the Golan Heights to the 4 June 1967 border and thus allow Syria to recover access to Lake Tiberias, was proposed to the U.S. mediator. The two actors came close to an agreement but failed to put an end to the Israeli-Syrian conflict at the Shepherdstown negotiations in January 2000 and the Asad-Clinton summit on 26 March 2000 in Geneva. What lessons can be drawn from the process which took place between 1991 and 2000 in terms of the actors' objectives, motivations and perceptions of each other? Why did the talks fail to produce an agreement? What was the weight of water in stimulating or blocking the process?
Political Geography:
United States, Middle East, Israel, Syria, and Egypt

173. Water, Sanitation and the Millennium Development Goals

Author:
Roberto Lenton, Kristen Lewis, and Albert M. Wright
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
Increasing access to domestic water supply and sanitation services, while at the same time improving water resources management and development, are catalytic entry points for efforts to fight poverty and hunger, safeguard human health, reduce child mortality, promote gender equality and manage and protect natural resources. They are, therefore, a critical component to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—the integrated set of eight goals and eighteen goal-specific, time-bound targets. The MDGs were adopted at the United Nations Millennium Summit with the objective to make real progress in tackling the most pressing issues facing developing countries. The seventh Millennium Development Goal focuses on environmental sustainability, and one of the three specific targets within this goal is Target 10: to cut in half, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
Topic:
Health
Political Geography:
United Nations

174. On Thin Ice: Water Rights and Resource Disputes in the Artic Ocean

Author:
Vsevolod Gunitskiy
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
In August 2007, a Russian submarine surprised the world by planting the country's flag on the Arctic seabed, almost 14,000 feet below the North Pole. The titanium tricolor was the culmination of a scientific mission to demonstrate Russia's claim to a vast, potentially resource-rich region along its northern coast. Recent geological surveys suggest the Arctic may hold up to a quarter of the world's remaining oil and gas reserves. Predictably, other circumpolar powers criticized the Russian voyage. “This isn't the 15th century,” said Canadian foreign minister Peter MacKay. “You can't go around the world and just plant flags and say 'We're claiming this territory.'”
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, and Canada