Environmental peacebuilding in the Middle East

The potential links between environmental stress or resource scarcity and armed conflict have received considerable political and academic attention since the early 1990s (Brauch 2009; Homer-Dixon 1999). From 2007 on, the discussion gained additional currency as concerns about the security implications of climate change began to grow (McDonald 2013). The Middle East has been a focal point in these discussions for several reasons. First, the region suffers from several environmental problems such as the overuse and pollution of rivers and groundwater resources or soil degradation. Table 12.1 shows that, according to the Falkenmark Water Stress Index (Falkenmark et al. 1989), most countries in the region were water scarce in 2014. Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and the states of the Arab Peninsula even suffered from absolute water scarcity.1