Water’s Flow of Peace

Book excerpt: This book presents the results of research cooperation between the Departments of Geography of the University of São Paulo, the University of Damascus and the University of Cambridge. It serves to refute the widely spread Malthusian paradigm—which forecasts conflicts due to water scarcity—by showing that this perspective has neither an empirical nor conceptual basis. It begins from the hypothesis that both sharing water politics and the use of technology can annul the water scarcity-conflict paradigm. To corroborate this hypothesis, the book uses two variables illustrated by two contexts: the Euphrates River basin was utilised to study the first variable of the hypothesis (sharing water), and to show that agreements on international river basins have assured fair use of water by avoiding conflicts, not only in the Middle East, but also in the vast majority of international basins throughout the world. The second context, the Persian Gulf and Arab Peninsula, was used to corroborate the second variable of the hypothesis—the use of technology to assure water supply; again, not only in the Middle East, but all over the world as well.