| Environmental variables have entered into the realm of political science and conflict study. To understand how and why ecological factors influence international political behaviour, this study evaluates the relationship between freshwater river systems and the political behaviour of riparian states. Emphasis is placed on evaluating freshwater resource scarcity, the degree of riparian interdependence, the legal interpretation of sovereign water rights, and the consequences of emerging trends regarding the economization of security. Each factor is tested by analyzing the behaviour of various riparian actors located in the Jordan River Basin and Nile River Basin. Conflict between riparian neighbours over the partition and use of shared freshwater resources is a consequence of the highly politicized nature of scarce freshwater resources, the zero-sum outcome of diverging national extraction strategies, the interdependent character of basin-wide hydropolitics, and the weakness of both international and regional legal institutions involving cross-border basin systems. |
