Depoliticising water conflict. The quest for functional peacebuilding in the Red Sea-Dead-Sea-Water-Conveyance project.
Author
Summary, in English
This article analyses the nexus of technocracy-peacebuilding and its implications on water conflicts and hydropolitics. It is a conceptual exploration, which advances an interdisciplinary approach by combining theories from two distinct research fields: peacebuilding and transboundary water management. It probes the argument that synergies between water management, development and peacebuilding frequently lead to technocratic and functional solutions. As empirical case illustration, the transboundary project, the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance (RSDSWC) is analysed regarding its peacebuilding and peace promoting potential. Three concluding remarks are drawn from the conceptual and empirical analysis. First, strong emphasis on technocratic solutions is inclined to favour supply-oriented options rather than solutions based on ethics of sustainable development and right-based distribution. Second, functional solutions to water conflicts downplay at times complex hydro-political and asymmetrical relations between adversaries. Third, wider trends of privatisation in the water sector coincide with similar developments in the field of peacebuilding where new transnational actors are gaining influence as “new peacemakers”, which are likely to have long-term consequences on power relations and the resolution of water conflict.
Department/s
Publishing year
2016
Language
English
Pages
1302-1312
Publication/Series
Hydrological Sciences Journal
Volume
61
Issue
7
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Topic
- Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalization Studies)
Keywords
- Read Sea
- hydropolitics
- technocracy
- depoliticisation
- peacebuilding
- water conflict
- Dead Sea
- Israel
- Jordan
- Palestinians
Status
Published
Project
- Lund Human Rights Research Hub
Research group
- Middle East politics
- Freds- och konfliktforskning
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0262-6667